In Ukraine, 4,621 enforcement proceedings were initiated between January and August 2026 to collect unpaid wages, which is 16% fewer than during the same period last year, when 5,470 such proceedings were registered, according to data from the Unified Register of Debtors, as analyzed by OpenDataBot.
Despite the decline in the number of new cases, the total volume of unresolved wage arrears remains significant. As of September, the Unified Register of Debtors listed 35,922 active cases related to unpaid wages.
Some of these debts have remained unresolved for many years. In particular, 1,957 active cases were opened as far back as 2017 and have still not been closed.
New cases were filed against 311 companies between January and August 2026. Of these, 144—or about 46%—are private enterprises, 117 are state-owned, and another 50 belong to local communities.
Thus, state-owned and municipal companies together account for more than half of the enterprises against which new enforcement proceedings regarding wage arrears were initiated this year.
OpenDataBot compiles statistics based on the Unified Register of Debtors, into which enforcement proceedings are entered after the relevant decisions on debt collection are issued.
Source: OpenDataBot, data for January–August 2026.
More than 80% of Ukrainian agricultural companies raised employee salaries by 10–20% in the first half of 2026; however, the labor shortage remains one of the industry’s key challenges, and recruiting has become more difficult than last year, according to a study by the analytical firm Agrohub.
According to the study, 81% of the companies surveyed have already adjusted their pay scales. Salaries rose most sharply for agronomists, engineers, tractor operators, and drivers—precisely the categories of workers where the labor shortage is most acute. To retain drivers, piecework rates and variable pay components were increased more often than fixed salaries.
The greatest labor shortages in the first half of the year were observed among tractor operators, drivers, engineers, and grain elevator workers. All survey participants cited mobilization as the main factor complicating the search for personnel; 69% cited a shortage of qualified specialists, and 56% cited rising salary expectations among candidates. Other reasons included population migration and competition among employers.
In response to the labor shortage, agricultural holdings are increasingly recruiting workers from other regions of Ukraine, as well as people aged 50 and older and women for positions that were traditionally considered male-dominated. In addition, companies are investing in in-house staff training and the automation of production processes to reduce their reliance on hard-to-fill positions.
“Companies have met their targets for the first half of the year and increased employee compensation; however, filling a vacancy today often costs more than retaining a current specialist. At the same time, we see that financial incentives are proving insufficient as the sole tool—the endless ‘salary race’ cannot overcome the physical shortage of workers in the market,” commented Dmytro Lebedev, head of the HR360 division at Agrohub.
According to him, in the second half of the year, companies will shift their focus from large-scale salary increases to automation, the development of internal training, expanding recruitment channels, and revising work organization models.
Agrohub’s study was conducted in June 2026 among 16 agricultural holdings with a combined land bank of 2.2 million hectares, operating in crop production, livestock farming, and the grain storage business.
agricultural company, agricultural sector, employee, SALARY, workforce
The number of full-time employees at the Kyivstar Group increased by 5.9%, or 291, to 5,183 in 2025, with the majority—68%—working at Kyivstar, the largest telecommunications operator, according to the group’s annual report.
According to the report, Kyivstar increased its workforce by 5.8%, or 193 employees, to 3,518 last year, while Kyivstar. Tech increased its workforce by 11.2% to 624, Helsi by 17.4% to 270, and only Uklon’s headcount remained unchanged at 768 people.
“The total number of our employees as of December 31, 2025, exceeds the number at the start of the war, and we have not lost a single key employee as a result of the war, despite the fact that 95% of our employees are located in Ukraine,” the report states.
According to the report, the group saw a 4.6% increase in full-time employees in 2024, or 217 people, including a 3.1% increase at Kyivstar, or 100 people.
It is noted that 20.7% of employees work in the network, 18% in call centers, 14.7% in commercial functions, 12.2% in digital functions, 7.6% in finance, 1% in HR, 0.8% in legal, 0.3% in compliance, and 21.4% are engaged in other support functions.
“We have developed internal procedures to manage the risk of mobilization of critical employees and are constantly analyzing the workload on staff to ensure uninterrupted operations,” the report states.
The group reported that since the start of the war in February 2022, it has paid employees 842 million UAH in emergency aid and is also offering 77% of employees the option to work in hybrid and remote modes.
It is also noted that the group had a relatively low voluntary turnover rate at the end of last year (calculated as the number of employees who resigned voluntarily relative to the total number of employees), with the exception of the call center, which relies heavily on seasonal workers—6.5%, which is only 0.5 percentage points higher than at the end of 2024 and 2023.
The report also notes that 218 employees are members of the Trade Union Committee of the primary trade union organization, and negotiations on concluding a collective agreement were suspended due to the war and are expected to resume after the end of martial law.
“We believe that relations with our employees are generally good,” the group concludes.
As reported, Kyivstar served approximately 22.4 million mobile subscribers and over 1.2 million fixed-line subscribers as of the end of 2025. The company is wholly owned by Kyivstar Group Ltd, whose shares are traded on the U.S. Nasdaq stock exchange and whose majority owner, in turn, is the telecommunications holding company VEON with an 83.6% stake.
In 2025, the Kyivstar Group increased its EBITDA by 30% to UAH 27 billion, with revenue growing by 30.3% to UAH 48.2 billion; including in the fourth quarter of last year, when EBITDA increased by 23.1% to UAH 7.2 billion, with revenue growing by 30.1% to UAH 13.5 billion.
Nova Poshta, Ukraine’s leading express delivery service and part of the NOVA group, has launched a pilot program to test Hypershell exoskeletons for use at terminals and depots, the company said in a statement on Wednesday.
“We want to make work at terminals and depots safer and more comfortable for employees. Therefore, we are systematically reducing the physical load in those operational processes where full automation is currently more difficult to implement,” said Yevhen Khomenko, R&D director at Nova Poshta, in the release.
According to him, the company aims to make warehouse operations easier and more productive.
Nova Poshta also explained that as part of the pilot program, employees are testing four models of exoskeletons, namely Hypershell X GO, Hypershell X PRO, Hypershell X CARBON, and Hypershell X ULTRA. The main function of this technology is to take over up to 30% of the effort normally expended by muscles when walking or moving, thus making movement easier.
“This makes physical work easier, helps employees maintain a steady pace of work, and reduces fatigue by the end of the shift,” the company emphasized.
It is noted that after completing testing, Nova Poshta will make a decision on the further use of exoskeletons and the possible scaling of the technology.
In 2025, Nova Poshta increased its revenue by 21% compared to 2024. The number of parcels and cargo delivered in 2025 increased by 7.4% – from 486 million to 522 million, including international deliveries – by 52.6%, from 19 million to 29 million.
The main activity of Nova Poshta is the express delivery of documents, parcels, and palletized large-sized cargo. Its ultimate beneficial owners are Volodymyr Poperechnyuk and Vyacheslav Klimov.
As of early January 2026, the company’s network had more than 50,000 service points, including 15,900 branches and 34,200 post offices.
In 2025, the Zaporizhstal Iron and Steel Works continued to implement its “Work Amenities” program, allocating a total of over UAH 13 million to renovate employee amenities.
According to the plant’s press release, in 2025, the company carried out major repairs of sanitary and amenity facilities in the open-hearth shop, the control and measuring instruments and automation shop, the motor transport department, and the central electrical engineering laboratory, and repairs of the sanitary and amenity facilities of the water supply shop are ongoing.
The total area of the renovated premises will be 530 m².
In particular, the plant recently commissioned a renovated sanitary and utility room in the open-hearth shop with an area of over 280 m². The facility underwent a major overhaul with a complete replacement of engineering networks, window and door blocks, and sanitary equipment, as well as a set of finishing works.
It is noted that the implementation of the “Working Conditions” program will continue in 2026. The program plans to further renovate the sanitary and amenity facilities of the open-hearth shop and the water supply shop, install water heaters, and equip a modern laundry complex.
Metinvest Group’s corporate program “Working Conditions,” which involves the modernization of utility rooms in production units, has been in effect at Zaporizhstal since 2012. During this time, more than 240 utility rooms have been renovated at the plant, with total investments exceeding UAH 260 million.
Zaporizhstal is one of Ukraine’s largest industrial enterprises, whose products are in high demand among consumers both in the domestic market and in many countries around the world.
Zaporizhstal is a joint venture of the Metinvest Group, whose main shareholders are System Capital Management (71.24%) and Smart Steel Limited (23.76%). Metinvest Holding LLC is the managing company of the Metinvest Group.
The international JYSK chain will raise the salaries of its retail chain employees in Ukraine from February 1, 2026: the salary indexation will average 15% and will cover all store employees, according to Yevgen Ivanitsa, country director of JYSK Ukraine.
“This decision is part of JYSK’s systematic approach to supporting the team, maintaining competitive wages, and investing in the people who provide a high level of service to our customers every day. We value everyone’s contribution and continue to work to create a stable and responsible working environment,” he said on LinkedIn.
Currently, there are 112 JYSK stores in 38 cities in Ukraine, as well as the online store jysk.ua, and the retailer’s network employs over 900 people.
According to the YouControl analytical system, the revenue of JYSK Ukraine LLC in January-September 2025 grew by 24% compared to the same period in 2024, to UAH 5.3 billion, and net profit grew by 22%, to UAH 959 million.
JYSK is part of the family-owned Lars Larsen Group, which has over 3,500 stores in 50 countries. JYSK’s revenue in the 2024/2025 financial year was EUR 6.2 billion.
