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Foreigners may only be allowed to work in Ukraine in sectors where there is a shortage of Ukrainians

Foreigners may only be allowed to work in Ukraine in sectors where there is a shortage of Ukrainians

22 July 2026, 16:00

Foreigners may only be allowed to work in Ukraine in sectors where there is a shortage of Ukrainians — Бізнес уже стикається з нестачею працівників, особливо у промисловості та будівництві

Ukraine is considering the possibility of recruiting foreign workers due to an acute labour shortage, but they must not compete with Ukrainians for jobs. A proposal has been put forward in the Verkhovna Rada to allow the employment of foreign nationals only in those sectors where vacancies cannot be filled by domestic workers.

This was discussed during parliamentary hearings on the situation in the labour market, according to the Judicial and Legal Gazette.

Galina Tretyakova, Chair of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Social Policy, noted that businesses are already facing a shortage of workers, particularly in industry, construction, healthcare, transport and the service sector. At the same time, the priority must remain the employment of Ukrainians.

Participants in the hearings emphasised that employers must first seek workers from among Ukrainian citizens, and only if they are unable to find them should they recruit foreign nationals.

At the same time, the state plans to simplify the application procedures for those foreign specialists who will nevertheless be working in Ukraine. Among the ideas is the creation of a ‘one-stop shop’ system, so that applications for work permits, residence permits and other documents can be processed through a single procedure.

The problem of labour shortages is already reflected in the statistics. Since the start of the full-scale war, the number of employees at micro-enterprises has fallen by 137,000, and the number of sole traders by a further 194,000.

At the same time, demand for workers continues to rise. Over the past two years, the number of vacancies in the State Employment Service’s database has increased by almost 50 per cent.

The greatest shortages are in:

doctors;
teachers;
engineers;
construction workers;
utility workers;
public transport drivers.

Many participants in the hearings emphasised that the state’s main task is not to import cheap labour, but to create conditions under which Ukrainians will want to return home.

This applies first and foremost to those who have gone abroad, as well as to the employment of veterans, internally displaced persons, young people and older people.

At the same time, experts from the International Organisation for Migration warned that bringing in foreign nationals without clear rules could lead to the exploitation of workers, illegal employment and even the risk of human trafficking.

Participants in the hearings highlighted the lack of up-to-date demographic information as a separate issue; in other words, the state still does not know how many people actually live in Ukraine. The last full census in Ukraine was conducted back in 2001, so the state effectively has no accurate data on the country’s population or its actual labour potential.

It is worth noting that over the past year, the number of job vacancies on the OLX Robota platform offering protection from mobilisation has risen by 25 per cent, whilst the number of responses to such offers has increased by 28 per cent.

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