Ukraine - Unemployment

For Ukraine: Indicators of economic activity, employment, and unemployment are sourced from sample population (household) surveys on economic activity (further referred to as Labour Force Survey).

The methodology of LFS is consistent with the current ILO and EU methodology and definitions of the basic indicators for economic activity of the population.

The ILO unemployed are persons aged 15 to 70 (registered and unregistered at the State Employment Service) who meet the following three conditions:  

1. were without work (gainful employment)
2. were actively seeking a job or were trying to set up their own business during the last 4 weeks prior to the survey, i.e. were making steps during the four weeks in order to find a gainful employment or be employed at their own enterprise
3. were available to work during the recent two weeks, i.e. to start working to get wages or be employed at their own enterprise.

The category of the unemployed also includes the persons who were not seeking a job because they have already found it and reached an agreement on the start of work during a certain period of time and undergo training by an assignment of the State Employment Service.

Scope of the data

Geographical coverage: Geographically the whole area of the country is covered, except the first and the second zones of radio contamination that happened as a result of the Chernobyl nuclear power station disaster. In 2014 the source ceased to publish data on temporarily occupied areas.

Population coverage: Persons covered by the survey include the resident population aged 15 to 70 years living in households.

All types of economic activity are covered.

All occupations are covered.

Recording basis

Reference period: the reference week (from Monday to Sunday) that includes the 15^th day of the month is used for measuring unemployment.

The questioning of the population is done during the third ten day period of each month from 21 to 30 (31) day (inclusive). 

Source data collection programs

Sampling:

The unemployment indicators are derived from the LFS that has been conducted by the state statistics offices since 1995. In 1995/1998 the survey was carried out just once a year, in 1999/2003 each quarter during the last month of each quarter, and since 2004 it is conducted on a monthly basis by the SSCU.

The objective for the conduct of the survey is to obtain information about the composition and structure of the labor force, measure employment and the population activity trends as well as identify the real level of unemployment which incorporates the general supply of labor and is used a an important indicator to analyze the current situation in the country's economy. The survey data permit to estimate the real volumes of and changes in labor supply on Ukraine's labor market, and analyze its development trends.

There is no seasonal adjustment of data.

Data are revised if there are changes in methodology, program to conduct the survey and basing on the population census data.

• Starting 2014, the source presents the data excluding the territories of Crimea and Sevastopol.
• Information regarding registered labor market in 2014 is given: for June - excluding data on Sloviansk City; Employment Center for Donetsk region; for August - data on Lugansk region are presented as of end of July; for October - including active employment centers of Lugansk region.

Further reading

At IMF (SDDS):

• Labor market - Unemployment