The number of job openings in the second quarter of this year rose by 13% compared to the first quarter, while the number of resumes increased by 75% compared to the same period in 2025, according to the first analytical report from the interactive quarterly analytics tool of the job search platform robota.ua.
According to this data, the Kyiv region had the most job openings in Q2 2026 (136,700, or 40.6% of the total). There is also active demand for workers in Lviv (26,800, or 8%), Dnipropetrovsk (25,800, or 7.6%), Odesa (19,300, or 5.7%), and Kharkiv regions (17,600, or 5.2%).
Since the beginning of the year, the number of job openings has been gradually increasing after a decline in November–December 2025 to 92,400. Specifically, in January 2026 there were 101,200 job openings, in February—105,800, in March—110,500, in April—113,200; in May, the trend slowed, and the market saw nearly as many job openings as the previous month—113,300.
Salary expectations are slightly lower than employers’ offers: in May, the salaries offered by employers amounted to 28,000 UAH, compared to the 25,000 UAH that job seekers were hoping for.
As noted in the platform’s report, the tool’s large-scale sample covers over 337,000 published job openings, 656,000 active job seekers, nearly 1,900 settlements, and over 110 million page views.
In addition to market indicators, the platform’s quarterly report highlights key labor market trends. Salary transparency, in particular, is becoming a key factor: 33% of job seekers do not apply at all to job postings that do not specify a salary, and against the backdrop of the European Pay Transparency Directive, a petition has emerged in Ukraine calling for a mandatory salary field on recruitment platforms.
It is noted that, amid a labor shortage, job reservations in the defense industry have become an important HR benefit offered by 74% of companies (according to a study by the Council of Arms Manufacturers and Core Team). Additionally, according to a study by the Ukrainian Center for Social Reforms, employers are more actively recruiting older candidates: about 65% of companies are willing to consider employees aged 50+, and over 60% are willing to consider employees aged 60+.
“Nova Poshta,” Ukraine’s leading express delivery service, has about 2,000 open positions, including 1,000 branch operators, 600 installers, 300 couriers and drivers, and another 100 in the support office, according to Anna-Maria Sabov, the company’s HR director.
“If we gain an additional platform as another recruitment channel, especially given that it will allow us to select candidates not only based on resumes but also on skills… I am confident that we will speed up the time it takes to fill vacancies,“ Sabov noted during the presentation of the launch of the first phase of the ”Obriy” digital labor market ecosystem in Kyiv earlier this week.
According to Nova Poshta’s management report, the total number of its employees in 2025 was 33,640, compared to 34,110 the previous year, while the average number of employees in 2025 was 27,570.
According to the director, the company’s current total time from the actual search to a trained candidate is about 30–35 calendar days, which includes a training phase lasting from three days to two weeks. Excluding this phase, the process would take 15–20 days.
“That’s a decent pace, but I want us to be even more productive,” Sabov emphasized.
She added that “Obriy” would provide additional value to employers if it allowed for the automation of paperwork when hiring employees, as this still requires a significant amount of time and resources.
The HR Director clarified that, overall, the recruitment department at Nova Poshta fills more than 1,000 vacancies each month, with 55 recruiters working to recruit employees for operational positions in the regions. According to her, the company plans to ensure staffing levels of about 95% during the summer to prepare for the seasonal increase in workload in September.
Sabov also reported that the company is launching a project to attract young specialists who will work on the architecture and modeling of Nova Poshta’s logistics. According to her, the company aims to make shipping cheaper and faster without compromising reliability and quality. To find such specialists, Nova Poshta plans to announce a separate campaign targeting a young audience in the near future.
“We will announce a major campaign to find such people. We want to start with five people first, so if “Obriy” can also provide, for example, a graduate’s GPA and their participation in extracurricular activities, such as academic competitions, this would be very valuable to us at “Nova Poshta” because we want to work with young people,” the director noted.
As reported, the Ministry of Economy, Environment, and Agriculture of Ukraine, in collaboration with the Ministry of Digital Transformation, has launched a closed registration for beta testing of the first tools of the new digital labor market ecosystem “Obriy,” the development and integration of which is estimated at $5–10 million for the current and next years.
The “Obriy” system will integrate information from existing job portals such as Work.ua, Robota.ua, Jooble, and others.
During the beta testing phase, “Diya” is launching its first two services: grants for professional training (reskilling and certification) of up to 15,000 UAH, as well as the option to remotely terminate employment contracts for individuals who remain formally employed in temporarily occupied territories (TOT). The launch of services for all citizens on the “Dii” platform is scheduled for July 2026.
The main activity of “Nova Poshta” is express delivery of documents, parcels, and palletized oversized cargo. Its ultimate beneficial owners are Volodymyr Poperechnyuk and Vyacheslav Klimov.
