Despite world economic jitters, the job market in Ukraine is showing surprising signs of recovery after a prolonged period of downsizing and weak hiring, following the financial crisis that started three years ago.
Against this uncertain yet hopeful backdrop, the autumn Kyiv Post Employment Fair takes place on Nov. 5.
The fair starts at 10 a.m. and lasts until 5 p.m. at 33 Velyka Zhytomyrska St., the building of the Ukrainian Chamber of Commerce. The admission fee is Hr 20 and Hr 10 for students. Members of the American Chamber of Commerce in Ukraine are admitted free of charge.
Expert seminars will be held by KOTRA Ukraine, Google, HH.ua (headhunter.ua) and British American Tobacco Ukraine. Topics include tips on job interviews and work conditions inside various companies.
Nearly 30 leading international and domestic companies will be looking for potential employees at the event. Of the 2,500 people who attended the most recent fair in June, more than half reported being invited for interviews.
The third quarter of 2011 is expected to be the best one for hiring since the crisis. Along with more vacancies, there are more companies willing to pay for recruitment, which is a relatively new trend after a period of “no vacancies with a tendency of redundancies [layoffs],” said Yulia Pasechnaya, head of Brain Source International in Ukraine.
The upswing is due to increased business activity, with companies expanding, opening new offices and more mergers and acquisitions going as compared to last year.
So not only is there a better chance of finding a job, employees are also being offered better benefits as well. After cutting their expenses in bad times, companies are starting to bring back benefit packages that include medical insurance for their employees. Brain Source International is seeing more job offers that include benefits.
Companies are also willing to provide training. “They have the budget to spend for their employees trainings,” Pasechnaya says. “This means that companies have started to earn money.”
Still the labor market has not reached pre-crisis levels, Pasechnaya said.
Information technology specialists remain in big demand and relatively well-paid. But the best news for IT specialists is that “they can find a new job the next day” if they leave their current employment. “There is a line for those kind of specialists, in all times, including crisis,” she said.
Fluency in English will also help professionals not only stay employed, but also move up the career ladder.
Caution remains, however, as commodity-export dependent Ukraine is particularly susceptible to global economic shocks. That has made companies cautious, with some of them holding off on hiring until a clearer picture emerges.
In September, there were 404,500 people registered as unemployed, according to State Statistics Committee. Half of them receive government support of Hr 885 per month.
The average monthly salary in Ukraine is Hr 2,495. But official statistics don’t give the full picture, since many in the labor market in the nation remain in the shadows.
Kyiv Post staff writer Maryna Irkliyenko can be reached at [email protected]
