Salaries are increasing, yet there is a shortage of workers: what's happening in the Ukrainian job market?

In the spring of 2022, Ukrainians faced a severe shortage of jobs: the number of vacancies dropped significantly. Nearly three years later, the situation has changed. Now employers struggle to find workers, leading them to either retain their current staff or make compromises by hiring specialists they previously overlooked.

What is happening in the Ukrainian labor market? Who are employers looking for the most, and what is driving the rise in salaries?

Main Trends in the Labor Market

The shortage of workers is one of the main obstacles to doing business, as noted by the job search service Work.ua. This is especially felt in skilled trades, manufacturing, healthcare, transportation, and logistics.

Experts predict that this trend will persist into 2025, as businesses have not yet adapted to the demographic changes caused by the war. Additionally, there is a regional disparity: people are migrating to safer areas, leading to an oversupply of workers in some regions while others face shortages.

Given the competition and the fight for workers, companies have shifted their priorities. While in 2023 they focused more on finding new markets, now over 50% of surveyed businesses are prioritizing maintaining their full teams, as shown by the results of a GRC.UA study. Furthermore, companies are increasingly attracting veterans and hiring women for traditionally "male" professions.

On January 15, the job search website Work.ua listed 80.8 thousand vacancies, compared to 75.5 thousand on the same day last year. The platform Robota.ua has even more offers - 97.7 thousand, which is 15 thousand more than in 2024. Offers from the State Employment Center have decreased: in December 2023, the agency's database contained 49.3 thousand vacancies, while at the beginning of 2025, it had 41.5 thousand.

Remote and hybrid work continues to be in demand among Ukrainians: competition for remote positions is several times higher than the average market levels, according to Work.ua. Additionally, the average salary for such work has increased by 20% over the year, reaching 30 thousand UAH. According to a Freelancehunt study, the number of freelancers has also risen by 14.4%, now totaling 904 thousand. The number of clients has also increased, growing by 11.6% to 269 thousand.

The categories related to visual and audio content are demonstrating the fastest growth. The "Design and Art" category accounts for 29.1% of freelancers, while the "Audio and Video" category has become the growth leader in the freelance market, increasing by a record 29.5%. Programming maintains third place with a share of 17.7%, but the growth of freelancers in this area was only 1.2%.

Freelancehunt predicts that in 2025, demand for video, audio, and photo projects will remain high, especially in advertising and social media segments. Niche areas such as 3D modeling and typeface design will continue to grow.

Who Employers Are Looking For

Traditionally, the most sought-after positions are managers and consultants. Military personnel have also made it into the top three. The top ten positions on Work.ua for January 2025 have changed little over the past year. The top categories include "Skilled Trades", "Service Sector", and "Retail". Also among the leaders are vacancies in the "Security and Safety" category, which has displaced "Accounting and Auditing".

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On Robota.ua, employers are most frequently looking for workers, salespeople, and logisticians. There are the fewest vacancies, as in the previous two years, in maritime professions (60), as well as in the insurance (120) and tourism (132) sectors. On Work.ua, there are the fewest jobs in the "Insurance" (155) and "Culture, Music, Show Business" (449) categories.

Analysts from the "OLX Work" platform indicate that in 2024, the most popular professions among job seekers were: online store manager, production packer, copywriter, assembler, and security guard. The hardest vacancies to fill were for auditors, pharmacists, auto electricians, designers, and dentists.

As explained by Work.ua, the moment of "closing" a vacancy extends beyond the interaction between the employer and the job search site, making it difficult to track this process.

"In most cases, employers consider a vacancy closed when the employee has passed the probation period, which can last up to three months according to the law. Additionally, the time taken to find a candidate will also depend on the number of recruitment stages. In small companies, this process is usually faster than in large ones," - explained Work.ua PR manager Victoria Belyakova.

Salaries are Rising, but There's a Catch

The average salary for employees in Ukraine from January to September 2024 increased by 22.2% compared to the same period in 2023, reaching 20.5 thousand UAH, according to data from the State Statistics Service. In most sectors (except education and the arts), real wages are higher than before the major war, states the National Bank.

Work.ua calculated that at the beginning of 2025, the average salary in Ukraine was 22.5 thousand UAH per month, having increased by 18% over the year.

The rise in wages has been a response from businesses to the labor market crisis, as there is a critical shortage of workers due to mobilization and migration, especially among skilled professionals. "However, the ability of businesses to offer increasingly higher pay is slowly declining, so wage growth will slow down," warn the NBU.

Additionally, in 2024, the minimum wage was raised twice, affecting the pay of "budget" employees. In 2025, no revision of the minimum wage is planned - it will remain at 8 thousand UAH.

According to Work.ua, the highest average salary is traditionally offered in Kyiv - 26 thousand UAH. This is 10 thousand UAH more than in Sumy. Slightly lower salaries are found in Lviv (24 thousand UAH), Dnipro, and Uzhhorod (both 22.5 thousand UAH). The most significant salary increases in 2024 occurred in Lutsk (from 16 to 20 thousand UAH) and Zaporizhzhia (from 15 to 18.5 thousand UAH).

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The highest salaries were received by top managers and employees in the fields of real estate, transportation, and sales, whose salaries have significantly increased. For instance, over the year, the salary of a real estate manager rose by 69% to 70 thousand UAH, a driving school instructor by 56% to 35 thousand UAH, and a driving instructor by 52% to 35 thousand UAH.

Overall, the highest salaries are offered to programmers, financial and commercial directors, and farmers. Employers are willing to pay farmers 60 thousand UAH.

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The lowest average salaries are in the "Security and Safety" (17.5 thousand UAH) and "Education and Science" (19 thousand UAH) categories. Data from Robota.ua shows a lower average salary. At the beginning of 2025, it stands at 20.1 thousand UAH. The top five professions with the highest average salaries (over 150 thousand UAH) are in the IT category.

Military Recruitment

Over a year ago, the labor market saw the emergence of military recruitment. The Ministry of Defense signed agreements with four companies (Lobby X, Work.ua, "OLX Ukraine", Robota.ua), which began searching for workers in this field. Units post various vacancies there: from cooks and accountants to assault soldiers and machine gunners.

In December 2024, there were over 7.6 thousand such vacancies on Work.ua. Mainly in the categories of "Security, Safety", "Transportation, Automotive Business", "Telecommunications and Communication", "Medicine, Pharmaceuticals", and "Sk