4.8 million jobs have been lost in Ukraine since the Russian invasion, according to a report by the United Nations International Labor Organization (ILO) on Wednesday. That is about 30 percent of the total number of jobs in the country. According to the organization, that could rise to seven million. However, if the war ends immediately, 3.4 million jobs could be saved.
To say that the Ukrainian economy is suffering from the war with Russia is an understatement. Economic institutions such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development predict that the economy of the Eastern European country will contract 30 to 45 percent this year. So far, the country has lost hundreds of billions in the war.
Employment is also suffering from Russian aggression. More than five million people have fled abroad since the February 24 raid. 1.2 million of those refugees worked and had to give up their jobs to flee the country. In addition, many more jobs were lost because companies were attacked or had to shut down their activities for other reasons.
In total, 4.8 million jobs have already been lost in just over two months, the ILO says. If the war continues for a long time, it could be up to seven million lost jobs. That’s 43.5% of the pre-war jobs. Should hostilities end today, 3.4 million jobs could be saved, bringing the loss to 8.9 percent.
Neighboring countries and the rest of the world are also affected by the crisis
The crisis may also lead to labor market disruption in neighboring countries. The longer the war lasts, the longer Ukrainians have to stay in, for example, Hungary, Poland or Moldova. This puts pressure on social security and the labor market in those countries, increasing the risk of unemployment.
Finally, the ILO warns that the war in Ukraine could also have an impact on the economies of other countries. The strong recovery from the corona crisis that has been witnessed in many Western countries will be partly offset by the effects of the war. This can lead to problems, especially in low- and middle-income countries, which have not yet fully recovered from the corona crisis.
In other countries, the organization sees food prices in particular rising for a long time to come, so that inflation will remain high for a long time to come. In April, it was 9.6 percent in our country, which is slightly lower than in March.