The demand for workers in the Ukrainian labor market has significantly increased with the coming of spring. Of the 65,000 vacancies offered by the State Employment Service 42% are for industrial or agricultural workers and another 15% for people without professions
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| PHÎÒÎ: PHL |
And yet it would be premature to say that the situation is stabilizing. Today’s terms of employment of blue-collar workers are considerably worse than before the economic crisis as most employers prefer hiring only on a short-term basis.
Open vacancies on the job market is the main distinction from the massive cuts in industrial jobs last March. Experts at the State Employment Service assure that gas and electric welders, engineers, construction workers, drivers and vendors of food products and non-food products are in greatest demand this year.
Seasonal jobs acks of all tradesback en vogue
General Director of the Forsazh employment agency Olena Hryshchuk says at the moment blue-collar workers (plant workers, builders, etc.) mostly have chances of finding only temporary jobs. She believes that during the next few months the majority of Ukrainian employers will operate on this method of cooperation with the workforce.
Seasonal workers will be in greatest demand in the agricultural and food industries. As a reminder, during the last few years agricultural enterprises experienced a serious shortage in hiring temporary personnel. For example, agricultural enterprises had a hard time finding pickers of fruits, berries and vegetables.
In 2010, the task of employers will become much simpler. The situation on the personnel market changed to the point where people are eager to take seasonal jobs. Olha Marchenko, Project Manager at Brain Source International, told “k:” that over the past month there was a surge in demand for temporary employment.
Production enterprises also need temporary personnel. After all, technological processes in many industries are seasonal by nature. However, while in the past large companies employed workers all year round and sent them on unpaid vacations now and then, at the end of 2008 and the first half of 2009 the majority of seasonal industrial workers were laid off.
Today, companies want to replenish their lost workforce. At the same time, they are in no hurry to boost their payrolls. Head of the ANKOR Outsourcing Department Oleksandr Verovka said the demand for leasing and outsourcing services has been steadily on the rise. “Over the last quarter the number of employees engaged in leasing projects of our clients (employment agencies increased by 140%,” he noted. In short, companies mostly prefer to hire sales staff and line production workers. On average, the period of assignment for such temporary personnel is 3-6 months depending on the sphere of activity.
Anna Koshelenko, a leading headhunter for temporary employees at ZEST Outsourcing, says vacancies in those sectors where the beginning of the season is during the summer months are in greatest demand. These are producers of spirits and low-alcohol beverages, ice cream, snacks, etc. Besides the industrial sector, they predict an increase in activity in the service sector over the next few months.
Jacks of all trades
“These days an employee that can operate several machines simultaneously is considered a good employee for the average employer. It is easier to find a job for odd-job people, because they are not attached to any special scope of activity,” noted Halyna Morozova, Director of the Capital Human Resources consulting company.
Alyona Yakovleva, General Manager of the Affinity Headhunting Agency, says employees are busy looking for alternative professions. While some of them train for a new profession, others make money on the side working at small enterprises.
Hryshchuk says most construction workers have been retrained. Older people became general laborers (loaders and security officers), while qualified young people that worked at construction sites today have mastered commercial professions: sales manager, sales representatives, merchandisers and tellers and call-center operators.
At the same time, Morozova says there remains a high demand for highly qualified labor (i.e. not university graduates, rather experienced professionals). However, today this category of the labor force is willing to work for a lower wage. Earlier, a high-class driver, turner or electrician working in Kyiv could ask for UAH 8,000-10,000 a month. Today, such a salary comparable to that of a director of a small commercial company is unrealistic.
University graduates also moderated their relish for salaries. Marchenko says earlier young people with not experience earned no less than UAH 3,000-4,000 working at a plant or on a construction site.
Serhiy Dovhych, a public relations manager at www.JOB.ukr.net, said the three waves of staff downsizing had their impact on the expectations of practically all young professionals. “Finding themselves in conditions where inexperienced employees and university graduates are actually not in demand, young people have no choice but to accept any offers. After all, one has to survive and support their family,” says Dovhych.
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