During the next year (from April 2024 to March 2025), Ukrainian employers intend to increase the salaries of their employees. However, this will happen mainly not at the expense of expanding the payroll, but by reducing the number of personnel. Such trends were revealed in the study "Business Expectations of Ukrainian Enterprises" for the first quarter of 2024, published by the National Bank of Ukraine.
According to the results of the survey, businesses plan to increase the wages of their employees over the next 12 months by an average of 8.7%. 62.6% of respondents gave this answer. In the fourth quarter of 2023, there were fewer of them - only 57.9%.
At the same time, employers understand that the next year will be difficult for Ukraine both politically and economically. Accordingly, they cannot guarantee the prosperity of their business. Therefore, they will need to hold on to the market at any cost. However, the price of their relative stability may be the availability of qualified personnel. They must be kept, so their wages will have to be raised. Since they do not expect large incomes, they do not dare to increase the wage fund. Thus, the salary increase of the personnel will be carried out only at the expense of reducing its number.
6.3% of surveyed employers plan to lay off employees. This indicator practically coincides with the results of the survey in the fourth quarter of last year - 6.5%. Even in one of the most stable areas, such as food trade, layoffs have begun. On the labor market, the number of vacancies for salespeople has noticeably decreased, and stores have started to cut staff. The men who work there are the first to go under the knife, because employers believe that they are less stable.
