Page 20 - UKRRptJan21

4.5 ​Labour and income
4.5.1​ Labour market, unemployment dynamics
Unemployment fell slightly in the third quarter, dropping to 9.5% from 9.9% the previous quarter, but still way above the 8.6% of the first quarter of this year.
Despite the relatively high level of unemployment the level of unemployment in the third quarter was historically not dissimilar to previous levels of unemployment that has been running at nearly 10% in 2018 in the first half of the year before falling to 9.3% in the first half of 2019 and then 8.7% in the first half of 2020.
Typically the levels of unemployment in the second half of each year are at least 1%-2% lower than in the first half. However, in 2020 unemployment jumped up by a full point which suggest that the levels of unemployment in the first half of 2021 could be even higher and possibly breach the 10% mark, before falling back in the second half of the year.
Highlighting Ukraine’s emerging role as the EU’s reserve labour pool, Ukrainians accounted for 55% of the 1.2mn first time residence permits granted last year to all non-EU citizens for work in the EU​, according to a new Eurostat report. Last year, 660,000 Ukrainians received these first time work-related permits, a 19% jump over 2018. This was 13 times greater than the next labour source – India, with 50,000 – and 16 times the third ranked country – Belarus, with 41,000. These numbers do not count Ukrainians who are in the EU on long stay visas or the back and forth flood of informal workers who take advantage of the 90-day visa-free regime.
EU job offerings for Ukrainians have grown by 40% since coronavirus
20​ UKRAINE Country Report​ January 2021 ​ ​www.intellinews.com