Page 25 - UKRRptNov18

4.4 Labour and income
4.4.1 Labour market, unemployment dynamics
Source: ICU
Unemployment rate (%)
2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 EFF
6.4 6.4 8.8 8.1 7.9 7.5 7.2 9.3 9.1 9.3 9.4 9.3 8.8
Ukrainian applications for work permits in Poland dropped by 23% during the first half of this year , compared to the same period in 2018. Through June of this year, there were 692 466 applications, down from 904,854 during the same period in 2017, according to Poland’s Ministry of Family, labour and Social Policy. The drop is due to the EU ‘no visa’ tourist regime of June 2017. Now, Ukrainian temporary workers do not bother to apply for work permits and they feel free to look for short term work outside of Poland, Radio Poland says, citing Pavel Julaga, chairman of the migration and employment committee of the Polish-Ukrainian Economic Chamber.
The flow of Ukrainians to Poland has plateaued, decreasing slightly since 2016 , reports Rzeczpospolita, Poland’s nationwide business daily newspaper. Separately, Dziennik Gazeta Prawna, another Polish newspaper, cites a new survey indicating that, given the chance, Ukrainians would jump over Poland to work in Germany. Contradicting the view that Ukrainians prefer Poland for its geographic and linguistic proximity, Maciej Witucki, CEO of Work Service, which conducted the study, says: "Unfortunately, our research has shown that these factors are at the bottom of the list of reasons why Ukrainians pick Poland for work. Higher salaries play a key role.” While 84% of Ukrainian survey respondents said they would recommend working in Poland to friends and family, about 60% said they would move to Germany for better pay
The Czech Republic plans to double its legal annual intake of Ukrainians to 40,000 workers next year , reports Hospodárské Noviny, a Prague centre-right newspaper. Faced with a growing labour shortage, Czech started ‘Regime Ukraine’ in 2016 to bring in workers. Over the last two years, the program cut visa processing times in half, to two months, and brought in 24,000 workers, Radio Prague reports. In the last year, the number of Czech companies participating in the program doubled. The Czech Chamber of Commerce, which represents 15,000 companies, warns the nation’s labour shortfall next year could be 500,000.
There were 97,000 job vacancies in Ukraine officially offered by employers at the end of September, one third more than the 73,400 offered one year ago, reports State Statistics Service. According to the service, there is now one job opening for every three unemployed persons in Ukraine.
Ukrainians received the most first residence permits in EU in 2017,
Eurostat reports. Of the 661,874 permits granted to Ukrainians granted, 88% were for Poland. Of all EU permits to Ukrainians, 88% were for work. Confirming Ukraine’s emergence as the regional supplier of labour, Ukrainians were the top nationals receiving residency permits last year in: Czech Republic – 18,887; Hungary – 7,808; Lithuania – 4,725; Slovakia – 4,268; and Estonia –
25 UKRAINE Country Report November 2018 www.intellinews.com