Page 20 - UKRRptMay20

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
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
Due to the quarantine, the number of unemployed Ukrainians has roughly doubled in one month, to 2.5-2.8mn people​, calculates the Ukrainian Chamber of Commerce and Industry. “The unemployment rate today is 13.7-15.4% -- this is the highest rate in the last 15 years,” says chamber president Gennadiy Chizhikov. In a chamber survey, 26% of companies say they plan to cut staff. To get some relief, quarantined businesses should pay only utilities – not rent – during the quarantine.
The government is making $1.3bn available to small businesses in its ‘5-7-9%’ loan program​. Designed to preserve jobs, the maximum loan size is $110,000 and all loans are to be interest free until next March 31.
Short of 100,000 seasonal workers, Germany’s farmers are working with their government to fly in 40,000 workers from Eastern Europe, ​reports Deutsche Welle. Similarly, Poland’s farmer and construction associations are working out visa regimes and medical protocols to bring back many of the estimated 250,000 Ukrainian workers who went home before the borders closed one week ago. Wage remittances last year totalled $12bn year, making labour Ukraine’s second largest export after food.
20​ UKRAINE Country Report​ May 2020 ​ ​www.intellinews.com