By Olha Chepil | 2025-12-16

Ukraine is rapidly running out of workers as the war drains men to the front lines, drives millions of people abroad and leaves entire industries without staff.

Labor shortages now affect large parts of the economy, and in some villages there are virtually no draft-age men left.

"We're seeing a catastrophic shortage of people with technical skills and education," Ukrainian economist Oleh Pendzin told Kontur.

Data from Ukraine's State Employment Center show that the most in-demand jobs include drivers, tractor operators, construction workers, welders, electricians and specialists with technical and vocational training.

Labor force losses

Economists said the scale of labor losses was unprecedented. Since Russia's full-scale invasion began, millions of Ukrainians, many of them working age, left the country, stripping the economy of skilled labor.

"Since the war began, around 6 to 8 million people have left Ukraine, and that includes many people of working age," economist Oleksiy Plotnikov told Kontur.

Those leaving were often among the most mobile and qualified. Plotnikov said Ukraine had lost IT specialists, engineers and other professionals able to work remotely, many of whom chose to relocate to countries such as Poland or the Czech Republic rather than remain under constant threat of shelling.

The International Labor Organization estimated that about 1.6 million working-age adults, primarily women, left Ukraine after the invasion.

Plotnikov said Ukrainian refugees were now contributing economically to host countries in ways that often exceeded their current contribution to Ukraine itself.

The exodus created what economists described as a paradox: Official unemployment remained high, yet employers could not find workers willing or able to fill vacancies.

"There are no people who will stand behind a machine, go to a construction site or drive a tractor," Plotnikov said.

The shortage affected nearly every sector but was most acute in lower-skilled and physically demanding jobs, including caretaking and dock work. Rural areas faced especially severe disruption as mobilization reshaped village life.

"Nearly all men between the ages of 25 and 60 in the villages have been mobilized. There's no one to work on tractors or operate farms and livestock breeding complexes," Plotnikov said.

Mobilization alone did not explain the crisis, economists said. Pendzin described Ukraine's labor problem as structural, marked by a mismatch between available workers and economic needs.

"In Ukraine there is still high unemployment, but it's a structural unemployment," he said, pointing to a surplus of economists, lawyers and journalists alongside an acute shortage of machinists, builders, engineers and farmworkers.

Pendzin added that many Ukrainians with higher education resisted retraining for manual or industrial work, further limiting flexibility in the labor market.

Building without builders

Construction emerged as one of the hardest-hit industries, according to economists and residents alike. Physical demands, specialized skills and widespread mobilization left sites understaffed or idle.

Tetyana Bryndas, a resident of Lviv, said finding skilled labor for even basic home repairs had become nearly impossible.

"There's no one at all, especially construction workers, painters and plasterers," Bryndas told Kontur, describing months-long delays for simple renovation work.

Before the war, she relied on two stable teams -- one for repairs and another for facade and plastering work. Those crews disappeared as workers left the country, were killed in combat or returned severely wounded.

"A father and son who laid tile for us went abroad. The second team all went to war. Two of them died, one was wounded and the main craftsman is in rehabilitation," she said.

Economists said construction workers rarely received exemptions from military service, unlike some officials, leaving the industry particularly exposed.

"In Ukraine labor doesn't get an exemption from active duty. Officials are exempt but workers aren't. They just go to war and don't come back," Bryndas said.

Some women attempted to fill the gap, but economists said such cases remained isolated rather than systemic.

Bryndas recalled hiring a female tile worker for the first time in her life and ultimately completing some renovation work herself.

"I picked up a spatula and did the whole corridor myself," she said.

Searching for solutions

With domestic labor insufficient, some Ukrainian companies began turning to foreign workers.

In January, the furniture manufacturer Lamella announced plans to hire specialists from Bangladesh for a wood-processing plant in Transcarpathia, far from the front lines.

"There are now 150 people from Bangladesh working at a wood processing plant in Transcarpathia," Pendzin said, describing them as Ukraine's first organized group of migrant workers since the invasion.

Economists warned that such measures would need to expand dramatically. To sustain manufacturing and compensate for demographic losses, Ukraine could require hundreds of thousands of foreign workers annually, potentially reshaping the country's social fabric.

"Demographers are saying that we need to bring in 450,000 migrants per year," Pendzin said, noting that many could come from Asia or the Middle East.

Authorities and businesses were also exploring ways to encourage Ukrainians abroad to return. Support centers opened in European countries with large Ukrainian communities, offering assistance to those integrating locally as well as information for potential returnees.

For now, economists said long-term planning remained constrained by the war itself.

"Unfortunately, as of now the only way to fix the acute labor shortage is to put an end to the war and discharge the men who will be able to return to civilian work," Pendzin said.