Every third employer in Ukraine reported dismissing young people aged 18–22 after the borders were opened for them

Every third Ukrainian employer reports dismissing employees aged 18–22 after the borders were opened for citizens in this age group.

This is evidenced by a survey conducted on the Work.ua website.

The site asked: Has the number of resignations in your company increased after the border was opened for young people?

• 37% of business owners answered: Yes, resignations in this category have already begun.

• Another 27% noted that resignations are occurring, but not on a mass scale — just at the usual level.

The problem of young employees leaving has been felt most acutely by large businesses, especially companies with more than 1,000 employees. The hardest-hit sectors were:

• hospitality and restaurant business (65%),

• retail trade (59%),

• food industry (52%).

Work.ua also reports that after the borders were opened, the share of young men aged 18–22 searching for jobs through the platform dropped from 16% to 11%.

Meanwhile, at the Lviv Polytechnic National University, there has been an outflow abroad even of first-year students, according to the university’s rector, Nataliya Shakhovska.

“As they approach the age when they will no longer be allowed to cross the border, they leave. We talk with parents, with the students themselves. But most likely, security is the factor that the university cannot guarantee, and it outweighs parents’ doubts,” Shakhovska noted.

Earlier, media outlets reported that starting from the very first day after the Cabinet of Ministers announced the resolution allowing men aged 18–22 to leave Ukraine, employees in this category began resigning en masse. The labor drain was felt most strongly in the service sector, where young people traditionally make up a significant part of the workforce.