Ukraine’s industrial sector reported a record share of companies struggling to find workers in April, with 68% of surveyed firms citing labor shortages as their primary obstacle to doing business.
The figure is the highest since Ukraine’s Institute for Economic Research and Policy Consulting (IER) began its monthly wartime polling in May 2022, according to its 48th wave of the New Monthly Enterprises Survey (#NRES).
The survey, which covers 471 industrial enterprises across 21 of Ukraine’s 27 regions, says 67% of enterprises cited a lack of workforce as a problem in March 2026, compared with nearly 50% in the second half of 2025.
The share of enterprises reporting difficulty finding skilled workers edged up from 61.4% to 62.3% in April. Another 35.1% said finding unskilled workers had also become harder.
The share of firms planning to expand employment over the next three months collapsed from 16.6% in March to 2.5% in April.
The results show a structural problem that has built steadily throughout the war.
Sergiy Nikolaychuk, first deputy governor of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU), said in early 2025 that the mismatch between labor supply and demand was caused by mobilization, emigration, and shifts in wartime economic needs.
The high number of displaced Ukrainians has exacerbated the issue – 6 million Ukrainians have become refugees abroad, while over 4 million displaced internally from the eastern regions struggle to find work due to skill mismatch as they move westward to Kyiv-controlled areas.
“The demand increased in industries that previously didn’t need that much workforce. For example, drone manufacturing,” Nikolaychuk said in February 2025. “And it’s not always the case that you can refocus a metallurgist to a sewing machine.”
Ukraine’s Ministry of Economy launched a series of programs to reskill employees, but IER Chief Oksana Kuziakiv previously cast doubt on their effectiveness.
Kuziakiv said the key problem lies in Ukraine’s lower salary compared to the EU, and that five million displaced Ukrainians who started working abroad can see the difference.
“We are at risk of losing those people who remained in Ukraine and see different salaries abroad for the same job. And other countries will provide them with some social benefits,” Kuziakiv said.
But Kuziakiv believes the issue is not so simple, as limited data and the lack of a census make it hard to fully understand the situation.
“Maybe employees are mobilized, but what if this means businesses are increasing their capacity and are looking for employees for new tasks?” she asked.
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IER’s survey says raw material and input costs ranked second among business obstacles, with the share of firms citing this problem rising sharply from 45% to 56%, one of the highest readings in over a year.
“We have one of the highest results – 56%. This obstacle was at the same level in February 2025,” reported Yevhen Anhel, senior research fellow at the IER.
“Dangerous working conditions” ranked third, rising from 42% to 46% of respondents. The figure remains disproportionately high among large enterprises at above 60%, compared to around 30% for micro firms and 40% for small ones.
In frontline industrial regions, the figure exceeded 80%, with firms in Kirovohrad, Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia, and Dnipropetrovsk regions most affected.
“It is dangerous to work” becomes a more prominent response when the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) reports pessimistic news from the front, Kuziakiv said.
Corruption and pressure from law enforcement or regulatory bodies remained marginal concerns among enterprises in the survey, each cited by 4% of respondents.