Business news from Ukraine

72% of employers in Ukraine complain about staff shortage

The level of wages in 2024 plans to increase 72% of surveyed companies, almost the same number of companies (74%) feel the shortage of staff, these are the results of a study of the labor market in Ukraine from the European Business Association (EBA).

According to the published data, 39% intend to increase wages by 11-15%, and 28% – by 6-10%, while plans to increase it by 16-20% – reported 13%, and above 21% – 2%.

It is also specified that the shortage of personnel has significantly increased since the fall survey, when 55% of respondents complained about it, while today only 7% of respondents do not feel it at all, while 17% feel it partially.

Within the survey, 79% of respondents reported a salary increase in 2023, 46% reported an increase in functionality and hiring new employees, and 36% reported an increase in budgets for staff development, training and maintenance.

In addition, 27% informed about increasing bonuses and bonus payments, while 10% of respondents reported staff reductions.

As for 2024, survey participants noted that companies are planning to increase salary levels (72% of respondents), increase training and development budgets (39%), increase the number of employees (35%), and enter other markets and find new partners (32%).

54% of survey participants indicated that their companies offer the opportunity to work remotely, but not for all categories of workers. 28% of respondents indicated that remote working is possible for all workers and only 17% reported that it is impossible to work remotely.

“Accordingly, there is a gradual dynamic of workers returning to offices. For comparison, in January 2023, only 4% of companies did not have the possibility of working remotely,” states the EBA.

The association also added that 52% of respondents have employees abroad, but their share does not exceed 5% of the total staff of the company, while 19% of respondents have 6-10% of employees abroad.

It is noted that 32% of respondents have all employees of the company now live and work in Ukraine, which is higher than in previous periods. At the same time, some companies use formats of temporary contracts abroad, upon completion of which employees can return to Ukraine.

Poland, Germany, Czech Republic, Romania, Great Britain, Spain, Israel, Netherlands, Slovenia, Austria, Norway, Belgium, USA, Switzerland, Canada, Latvia, Italy, Luxembourg were named among the countries where most of the companies’ employees live.

It is emphasized that 41% of respondents do not plan to return workers to the office in the near future, 12% said that the company plans to return all workers to the office in the near future, and 20% of respondents said that the company plans to return not all categories of workers.

To tear away vacancies in companies, 67% of survey participants intend to do so, with 48% of respondents not planning to change the number of employees in 2024, and 26% will increase staffing by ≥5%.

Also, 7% said that the number of employees will increase by 6-10% and 5% of respondents wrote that their companies plan to reduce the number of employees.

109 HR professionals (49% department heads, 24% middle managers, 26% top management, 3% junior staff) participated in the study, it lasted from February to April 2024 and covered the period August 2023 – April 2024.

More than 60% of the participants in this study will represent international businesses. 50% of companies are from large businesses, 43% from medium-sized businesses and 7% from small businesses.

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Oil moderately rises in price, Brent trades at $89.4 per barrel

Benchmark oil prices are moderately rising on Friday morning after rising in the last hours of trading the day before.

The price of June futures for Brent on the London ICE Futures exchange at 8:01 a.m. is $89.35 per barrel, which is $0.34 (0.38%) higher than at the close of the previous session. On Thursday, these contracts rose in price by $0.99 (1.1%) to $89.01 per barrel.

Quotations for June futures for WTI in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) by this time increased by $0.29 (0.35%) to $83.86 per barrel. At the end of the previous session, the contract rose by $0.76 (0.9%) to $83.57 per barrel.

For most of the last session, oil was trading in the red, managing to break even at the very end of trading. Such fluctuations were caused by low trading volume, Manish Raj, managing director of Velandera Energy Partners, told MarketWatch. “Too many investors have played the downside, and now they are trying to close their positions,” he said.

A day earlier, the U.S. Department of Energy reported that commercial oil reserves in the country fell by 6.368 million barrels last week. The drop was the largest since January, and the decline was recorded for the first time in five weeks. Despite this, oil prices declined slightly on Wednesday.

“The bulls are probably very upset by the market’s reaction to the larger-than-expected drop in oil inventories,” analysts at brokerage Zaner said.

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State-owned Ukrposhta increased net income by 12% last year

In 2023, Ukrposhta JSC increased its net income from sales by 12.2% compared to 2022 to UAH 11.58 billion, reducing its net loss by 36% to UAH 796.4 million, according to a report on the company’s official website on Thursday.

“Revenue growth is observed for all services, except for income from mailing, distribution of periodicals, payments, and a number of others,” the company said in a statement.

It is noted that against the backdrop of a 12.8% increase in the volume of written correspondence, revenues from the service decreased by 11% to UAH 1.5 billion.

The volume of distribution of periodicals decreased by 25.3%, and revenues from this type of activity fell by 40.6% to UAH 197.9 million due to falling demand for the service and delayed tariff revision, Ukrposhta noted.

In addition, the number of accepted utility payments decreased by 3.6%. The company explained this by migration of the population, destruction of utility infrastructure, and partly by the introduction of payment holidays.

According to the report, Ukrposhta’s revenue growth was driven by parcels, both domestic and international, as well as remittances. In 2023, the volume of domestic parcels increased by 34% to 50 million units, and revenues from the parcel delivery business reached UAH 1.7 billion.

Revenues from international postal operations (international parcels, small packages, EMS) amounted to UAH 2.7 billion. It is noted that the volume of international export shipments increased by 3.7% compared to 2022, while due to the growth of the exchange rate, revenues increased by 27.8%, Ukrposhta said.

In 2023, the company’s revenues from pensions and cash benefits increased by 4% to UAH 2.8 billion, while the number of pension payments decreased by 5.5%, which is significantly higher than the historical outflow rate, the report said.

According to the report, revenue from postal transfers increased by 88.7% to UAH 317.2 million, and from the sale of goods in branches by 2.8% to UAH 873.3 million.

It is reported that Ukrposhta has no arrears in payments to the budget and state trust funds. In 2023, the company paid UAH 2.99 billion in taxes, fees and mandatory payments, which is UAH 128.6 million more than in 2022.

The volume of Ukrposhta’s capital investments in 2023 amounted to UAH 526.7 million.

It is also noted that during 2023, the company fulfilled its financial obligations in a timely manner, including bond repayments of UAH 3.9 million, leasing of UAH 221.9 million, and loan servicing of UAH 231.9 million. As of the end of 2023, the company’s total debt amounted to UAH 1.73 billion, including UAH 1.008 billion in bank loans and UAH 170.2 million in financial leasing.

In 2023, the average number of Ukrposhta employees was 40.4 thousand, including 7.4 thousand postal operators and 12.5 thousand postmen. The average salary in 2023 was UAH 11.69 thousand. The company’s total labor costs in 2023 increased by 8.4% to UAH 5.97 billion.

The number of Ukrposhta’s stationary offices amounted to 4.69 thousand, and mobile offices – 1.86 thousand, the report says. Due to military operations, the company temporarily lost control of about 12% of its post offices, mainly in the occupied areas of Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions.

Minister of Agrarian Policy of Ukraine resigns

Mykola Solsky submitted a letter of resignation from the post of Minister of agrarian policy and food of Ukraine, the Verkhovna Rada will consider it at one of the next plenary sessions, said the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Ruslan Stefanchuk.

“The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine received a statement from Mykola Solsky on resignation from the post of Minister of agrarian policy and food of Ukraine. The statement will be considered at one of the next plenary sessions,” he wrote on his Facebook page on Thursday.

The Ministry of agrarian policy and food in turn published a comment from Solskiy about the application submitted to the Parliament.

“Yes, I wrote a letter of resignation from the post of Minister. In such a situation, I believe it is the right step. The Verkhovna Rada will decide to accept my resignation – I will be grateful for such a decision, will decide that I should work further – I will continue to work”, – he explained.

As reported, on April 23, the NABU notified Solsky about suspicion in the possession of state land for 291 million UAH and an attempt to seize land for another 190 million UAH.

The Minister denied the accusations and stated that “the events, which, according to NABU, are reported in the suspicion to me, relate to the period 2017-2018, that is, at the time when I was a lawyer and was neither the Minister of agrarian policy and food of Ukraine, nor the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on agrarian and land policy”.

According to his information, the circumstances of seven years ago concern a dispute between state enterprises and individuals, in particular ATO military personnel, over lands granted to them in possession in accordance with the law.

On April 25, leading agrarian associations petitioned the Supreme Anti-Corruption Court to take Solskyy on bail, and also expressed confidence in the work of the Ministry of Agrarian Policy.

The HACC heard the prosecution and defense sides during the trial on Thursday. SAP demanded for the current Minister of detention, and in case of a decision to release on bail two representatives of agrarian associations – chairman of the All-Ukrainian Agrarian Confederation Maria Didukh and deputy head of the All-Ukrainian Agrarian Rada Denis Marchuk – to prohibit Solskiy communication with other suspects, travel from Kiev, obliged to wear an electronic bracelet and bail 200 million hryvnia.

According to the broadcast of the meeting, the court declared a break and will continue consideration of the motion SAP on Friday morning.

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Boryspil Airport has announced tender for MTPL insurance services

State enterprise “International Airport “Boryspil” (Kiev) on April 25 announced a tender for the purchase of services of compulsory insurance of civil liability of owners of land vehicles (OSAGO), reported in the system of electronic public procurement Prozorro.

As noted, the expected cost of the purchase of services is UAH 157 thousand.

Security of the tender offer is not required.

The deadline for submission of bids is May 3

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“Kyivstar Home Internet has largest gigabit network in Ukraine

Kyivstar’s Home Internet has the largest gigabit network among Ukrainian Internet providers. The company has invested more than UAH 44 million in Gigabit development during the full-scale invasion alone.

At the beginning of 2024, the number of Kyivstar fixed-line subscribers reached 1.15 million, and more than 70% of them have access to gigabit tariff plans.
Thanks to the rapid modernization of gigabit equipment, Kyivstar Home Internet subscribers can increase the speed from the standard 100 Mbit/s to 1 Gbit/s. In particular, this became possible in big cities: Kyiv, Dnipro, Lviv, Rivne, Khmelnytsky, Lutsk, Ternopil, and cities of regional significance: Bila Tserkva, Kamianets-Podilskyi, Netishyn, Drohobych, Mukachevo, Novovolynsk, Boryspil, etc.
“With the number of gadgets and users in Ukrainian homes constantly growing, increasing the standard speed from 100 Mbps to 1 Gbps is a hygienic improvement in the convenience of Internet access. That is why our focus in 2021 is to modernize our equipment in different cities of Ukraine for the qualitative development of Gigabit,” commented Sergiy Sukhoruk, Head of Fixed Line Communications at Kyivstar.

Subscribers can choose a tariff plan, and instead of the standard 100 Mbit/s speed, they can receive Internet at up to 1 Gbit/s. This allows users to download large files faster, connect more devices without sacrificing speed and watch videos on large screens in the best quality.
Before upgrading to a gigabit plan, users should make sure that their router is capable of supporting it. If it does not, they should replace it.
Gigabit speed from Kyivstar is available in most tariff plans of the Home Internet service. To test it, current subscribers can change their tariff to one that allows them to use speeds up to 1 Gbps, try it for 50 UAH/month or connect the appropriate Superfast. New Kyivstar fixed-line subscribers can use the Try Gigabit service and test gigabit speeds for free for the first 3 months.
For more information about Kyivstar’s gigabit speed, please follow the link.

In addition, Kyivstar continues to connect shelters across the country to the Internet free of charge. During the full-scale invasion, 1490 shelters were connected, and the company invested over UAH 700 thousand in this initiative. The company has also provided free Internet connection to 1550 modular houses for IDPs and will continue to do so upon request to wifi@kyivstar.net.
About Kyivstar:
Kyivstar is Ukraine’s largest electronic communications operator, serving about 24 million mobile subscribers and more than 1.1 million Home Internet subscribers as of December 2023. The company provides services using a wide range of mobile and fixed technologies, including 4G, Big Data, Cloud solutions, cybersecurity services, digital TV, etc. Kyivstar is developing new telecom technologies in Ukraine and plans to invest USD 600 million in this area over the next three years. The company helps Ukraine overcome the challenges of wartime and has allocated over UAH 1.8 billion over the past two years to support the Armed Forces, subscribers, and social projects. Kyivstar’s shareholder is the international VEON Group. The Group’s shares are listed on the NASDAQ (New York) and Euronext (Amsterdam) stock exchanges. Kyivstar has been operating in Ukraine for 26 years and is recognized as the largest taxpayer in the telecom market, the best employer and a socially responsible company. For more information: pr@kyivstar.net, www.kyivstar.ua

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