About the ILO in Ukraine

Embarking on ambitious economic reforms amidst serious security threats

Ukraine’s transition to a market economy faces serious political, economic, and security challenges. Ukraine has not yet fully recovered from the sharp economic downturn in 2014/15. The war in the East caused a 16% contraction of GDP and an internal displacement of 2.3 Mio persons. Between 2016 and the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic in late 2019, the Ukrainian economy showed solid growth rates of around 3.5%. Labour markets did not benefit much from this growth. Key labour market challenges remain low employment rates with a pronounced gender gap, high labour emigration, elevated youth unemployment and inactivity, and a notable skills mismatch. Continue reading