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.
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