Employment of IDPs: the situation in small towns
Kyiv • UNN
Employment of IDPs: the situation in small towns.
Having a stable job is not just one of the key conditions for internally displaced persons to adapt to the new realities of life. It enables them to support their families, solve housing and household problems. However, due to a number of objective and subjective reasons, the situation with the employment of IDPs in Ukraine is not ideal and requires attention of both central and local authorities, UNN writes.
Since the start of full-scale Russian aggression, the number of internally displaced persons in Ukraine has officially increased to 4.6 million. According to the Ministry of Social Policy, as of April this year, 2.1 million of them are people of working age. Of these, 800,000 are officially employed.
According to experts, the difficulties with employment arise because many of the internally displaced persons have worked at large industrial enterprises in eastern and southern Ukraine before leaving their homes due to the war. Moving to less industrialized regions of Ukraine, these people often find it difficult to find a job in their specialty.
Therefore, it is not surprising that in 2023, the top five cities in terms of the number of registered internally displaced persons were Kyiv, Dnipro, Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia, and Odesa, all of which are large industrial centers of Ukraine. This means that people are still looking for an opportunity to settle where they can find a job in their specialty.
In small towns, where small businesses and services are traditionally more developed, this problem is more acute. For example, almost 22,000 internally displaced persons are currently registered in the Brovary community, about 2/3 of whom moved after the full-scale Russian aggression. There are industrial enterprises in the city, but there are still difficulties with employment, so the issue of retraining and obtaining a new profession comes to the fore.
"Many IDPs worked at large enterprises in the metallurgical, coal, and chemical industries. There are no such vacancies here, so retraining is needed. We want to negotiate with companies that are ready to hire IDPs and organize appropriate courses for them," said Anastasia Tretiak, head of the IDP Council at Brovary City Council, in a commentary to UNN .
In order to more clearly identify the main problematic issues with employment, the Council, established in January of this year, conducted a survey among IDPs in the Brovary community. And although, according to Anastasia Tretiak, it cannot be called as representative as possible, certain trends can still be traced.
Thus, about 36% of respondents have found work in the community, work remotely, or are employed at their previous place of residence.
The greatest need for employment (almost 35%) is among internally displaced persons aged 36-45, i.e. people who have been working in a particular specialty for some time and now find it difficult to find a job in their field.
At the same time, according to the head of the IDP Council in Brovary, people are ready to change their professional fields
"Our survey has shown that people want to work as drivers, in the medical field, and are ready to attend courses in English, accounting, computer literacy, beauty industry, etc. for further employment," says Anastasia Tretiak.
Of course, the employment of internally displaced persons is a national issue. However, local authorities should also be involved in this process whenever possible.
"Of course, local authorities should take care of such people. For IDPs, the main problems are, of course, a roof over their heads and finding a job: to have a place to live and something to live on. And this is the task for local and central authorities to solve them.
Now, in many cases, everyone is limited to state aid of two thousand for an adult and three thousand for a child or a person with a disability. And they think that's it, and then you can go on as you please. Moreover, this meager assistance can also be canceled if an inspector notices that a person does not live on the declared assistance.
Therefore, the role of local authorities is very important, as well as the central government. This is one of the social functions of the state," said social policy expert Andriy Pavlovsky in a commentary to UNN.
People in Brovary understandthat a stable job with decent wages will help IDPs adapt to their new place.
"We understand these people like no one else, because in the first days of the war, the Russian occupiers were on the outskirts of our city, where fierce fighting was going on. Brovary residents also left and sought refuge in other regions of Ukraine or abroad. Therefore, the city council is doing everything possible to facilitate the adaptation of these people and their integration into our Brovary community. We are developing various projects and programs to ensure that people have jobs, housing, and access to social services," Brovary Mayor Ihor Sapozhko told UNN.