Unemployment rate in Ukraine is much higher than in all neighboring EU countries, and there are no prospects to improve the situation under current economic agenda. This was stated by OPPOSITION PLATFORM — FOR LIFE MP Serhiy Lovochkin commenting on data released by the State Statistics Service.

The data reads that the unemployment rate in Ukraine (calculated using the International Labor Organization methodology) reached 9.2 percent among population aged 15–70 in Q1 2019, and 9.6 percent among people of employable age. Among those aged 15+ the unemployment rate is 9.1 percent.

“Over the recent years nothing has been done to at least get the unemployment rate back to its 2013 figures. Therefore even official data for Ukraine are much worse than that in neighboring Czech Republic, Hungary, and other Eastern European countries. The acting government’s agenda is aiming at pushing employable population to work abroad, not at solving this problem,” Lovochkin believes.

The politician cited unemployment rates among people aged 15–70 in other countries: 2 percent in Czech Republic, 3.6 percent in Hungary, 3.9 percent in Poland, 4.1 percent in Romania, and 5.8 percent in Slovakia.

“Still, the potential unemployment rate is much higher in Ukraine as long as it does not account for forced labor migration. If these labor migrants stayed in Ukraine, the unemployment rate would have reached 18–20 percent,” Lovochkin said.

“At the same time, Ukraine’s production sector is stagnated, and no new jobs are being created. If this economic agenda remains in place, the situation with unemployment will only get worse. OPPOSITION PLATFORM — FOR LIFE aims at restoration of traditional markets for Ukrainian export and creation of favorable conditions for manufacturing enterprises. This will lead to creation of new jobs, benefiting Ukrainian citizens and the state in general,” Lovochkin said.