Labour shortages top obstacles to business, chemical industry reports greatest difficulties – survey
Businesses continue to complain about a shortage of qualified personnel – among the obstacles to doing business during martial law that they cited, this issue in July, as it did in June, ranked first with 66% of respondents, compared to 71% in June, according to the results of the monthly business survey conducted by the Institute for Economic Research and Policy Consulting (IER).
The chemical industry reported the most significant labor shortages among surveyed companies, with 84% of respondents citing this issue. Labor shortages were also prevalent in the production of building materials, metallurgy and metalworking, food industry, machine building, light industry, woodworking, and printing. The size of the enterprise correlated with the severity of labor shortages, ranging from 34% among microenterprises to 88% among large enterprises.
Employee mobilization was considered the primary factor affecting workforce availability, while restrictions on employee retention and insufficient candidate qualifications were also major concerns. Other challenges included rising raw material and goods prices, unsafe working conditions, declining demand for products/services, and difficulties in transporting raw materials.
The Business Activity Recovery Index (BARI) showed a slight improvement, although it remained negative at -0.11 in July. Uncertainty regarding the short-term outlook for the country's economic situation and enterprises increased slightly. The survey of 472 enterprises in 21 Ukrainian regions found that capacity utilization remained largely unchanged, with 64% operating at full capacity.
Written by urgent.news from Interfax-Ukraine's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
