Shortage of Skilled Specialists in Ukraine: Causes and Systemic Factors

Анотація

The article examines the shortage of skilled specialists in Ukraine as a systemic socioeconomic phenomenon that has developed under the influence of long-term structural, demographic, and institutional factors and has intensified under the conditions of the ongoing full-scale war. The aim of the article is to identify the causes and systemic factors of the shortage of skilled specialists in Ukraine, which has formed under the influence of labor market structural imbalances, demographic losses, migration processes, and the peculiarities of enterprise operations during the wartime, limiting the possibilities of human resources reproduction and restraining socioeconomic development. The methodological basis consists of systemic and structural-logical approaches, economic and statistical analysis, as well as methods of scientific generalization and comparison. The information base was formed from data of the State Statistics Service of Ukraine, the State Employment Service of Ukraine, survey results of enterprises, research from the Diia.Business platform, and analytical materials from online job search platforms (Robota.ua, Work.ua). It has been found that the shortage of skilled specialists has not only a quantitative aspect but also a pronounced qualitative and professional-structural nature, manifesting in a mismatch between employers’ demand and the competencies of the workforce (primarily in the fields of labor, production, and technical-technological professions), an intensification of regional employment asymmetries, and a reduction in the segment of formal employment in basic types of economic activity. A persistent mismatch has been identified between the educational priorities of students and the real needs of the labor market, which leads to the reproduction of structural imbalances in the medium and long term. The determining role of working conditions and work quality, labor organization, and enterprise inclusiveness in the processes of preserving and reproducing human resources has been substantiated. The scientific novelty lies in substantiating the shortage of skilled specialists as a long-term systemic phenomenon that was formed in the pre-war period and has a qualitative, professional-structural, and spatial character. It has been proved that the partial recovery of the labor market and the growth in the number of vacancies are not accompanied by an adequate restoration of the personnel potential of enterprises. The practical significance of the results lies in the possibility of their use in the formation of State and corporate human resource management policies in conditions of wartime and post-wartime economic reproduction.

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