Publication: Ukraine Jobs study : Fostering Productivity and Job Creation, Volume 1
Loading...
Published
2005-12
ISSN
Date
2012-06-19
Author(s)
Editor(s)
Abstract
This Ukraine Jobs Study aims to 1) assess labor market performance in the Ukraine, 2) identify key constraints to job creation, and suggest policies that will foster job creation and productivity. The study finds that, despite relatively low unemployment, the labor market is depressed and productive job opportunities are scarce. Moreover, unemployment is likely to increase once enterprise restructuring accelerates. The primary cause of poor labor market outcomes in Ukraine is the small size of the "new" private sector, consisting of small firms. This, in turn, is due to the poor investment climate caused by high risks, costs, and barriers associated with doing business in the Ukraine. Accordingly the key to improving labor market outcomes is to remove the main impediments to entry and growth, such as policy uncertainty, corruption, red tape, inefficient regulations, and poor access to finance. In the longer term, labor market institutions need to be reformed to create an adaptable labor market that supports job creation and growth in productivity.
Link to Data Set
Citation
“World Bank. 2005. Ukraine Jobs study : Fostering Productivity and Job Creation, Volume 1. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/8465 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
Digital Object Identifier
Associated URLs
Associated content
Other publications in this report series
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue
Collections
Related items
Showing items related by metadata.
Publication Ukraine Jobs study : Fostering Productivity and Job Creation, Volume 2, Technical Chapters(Washington, DC, 2005-11)This Ukraine Jobs Study aims to 1) assess labor market performance in the Ukraine, 2) identify key constraints to job creation, and suggest policies that will foster job creation and productivity. The study finds that, despite relatively low unemployment, the labor market is depressed and productive job opportunities are scarce. Moreover, unemployment is likely to increase once enterprise restructuring accelerates. The primary cause of poor labor market outcomes in Ukraine is the small size of the "new" private sector, consisting of small firms. This, in turn, is due to the poor investment climate caused by high risks, costs, and barriers associated with doing business in the Ukraine. Accordingly the key to improving labor market outcomes is to remove the main impediments to entry and growth, such as policy uncertainty, corruption, red tape, inefficient regulations, and poor access to finance. In the longer term, labor market institutions need to be reformed to create an adaptable labor market that supports job creation and growth in productivity.Publication Armenia - Labor Market Dynamics : Volume 1. Overview(Washington, DC, 2007-05)This study is intended to help Armenian policymakers better understand the main factors behind modest labor market outcomes and to identify policy options to create more and better jobs. The report is based on data from administrative statistics, labor force surveys, and household surveys. The objective of the study is to determine the main factors behind poor labor market outcomes in Armenia: high unemployment of long duration despite rapid economic growth. To do so, it will assess, first, the key characteristics of the demand for labor. These include (a) the impact of macroeconomic policies on job growth; (b) wage flexibility and unit labor costs; (c) cost-of-doing-business factors, including costs, risks, and barriers to competition faced by firms; and (d) employment promotion legislation and labor market institutions. Recommendations are made on policies that can promote an effective and sustainable increased demand for labor; second, the key characteristics of the supply of labor, including the impact of long-term demographic developments and labor migration, and the impact of social benefits on the reallocation of labor. Policy options are analyzed that can support the development of an efficient supply of labor to a modern high-wage market economy; and, third, the mechanisms by which employers and workers are brought into contact with each other, and recommend policies that support efficient and effective labor market institutions. The report consists of two volumes. Volume I provides an overview of the study and summarizes its conclusions. Volume II provides a more technical and detailed analysis of various aspects of labor market transition in Armenia.Publication Pakistan Labor Market Study : Regulation, Job Creation, and Skills Formation in the Manufacturing Sector(Washington, DC, 2006-09)In an effort to improve employment outcomes and industrial productivity, the Government of Pakistan (GoP) has launched a dual-track reform process involving broad-based overhaul of labor laws and institutions, and expansion and reform of the Vocational and Technical Training (VTT) system. Labor market regulation and laws are useful economic and social institutions designed to protect workers from undesirable consequences of market failure such as arbitrary or discriminatory actions by employers. They also help stabilize employment and household incomes against aggregate business cycles and shocks. Labor regulation is also an important element of society's instruments for the provision of social security and the maintenance of health, safety, and environmental standards in economic activities. Labor regulation in Pakistan is excessive by international standards, as can be seen from data on a number of indicators of labor market flexibility. All things considered, Pakistani industry and workers will seem to be better off with a more flexible labor market. The report analyzes the existing labor laws and institutions, along with the new draft laws, from this point of view. It also provides a review of the current VTT system and changes for it.Publication Key Characteristics of Employment Regulation in the Middle East and North Africa(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2010-07)This note provides a general background of the main features of labor regulation in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and benchmarks them against international best practices. The note compiles information on available labor laws and other legal acts concerning employment protection regulation. Within the broader scope of labor regulation, and in order to assure regional comparability, information collected focuses on key issues in the labor law associated with commencing or terminating employment and during the period of employment (including maternity benefits). The main sources the data are the World Bank doing business 2010 and International Labour Organisation (ILO) databank. This note is a tool to provide policymakers and international organizations with a regional diagnose of how labor regulation affects labor market outcomes in MENA and inform client governments about strategic approaches to employment creation through labor policy and reform. This activity comes as a response to regional priorities in the context of the Arab World Initiative (AWI). One of the six strategic themes of the AWI focuses explicitly on employment creation as a top priority. Part of the World Bank's mandate under the AWI is to inform client governments about strategic approaches to employment creation through labor policy and reform.Publication Climate Change Policies and Employment in Eastern Europe and Central Asia(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2012-12)This paper analyzes the differential impact of climate change policies on employment in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. In particular, the paper examines (i) how vulnerable labor markets are in Eastern European and Central Asian countries to future carbon regulation, and (ii) what countries can do to mitigate some of the potential negative effects of these regulatory changes on employment. In many aspects, the nature of the shock associated with climate regulation is similar to that associated with an increase in energy prices. Constraints on carbon emissions put a price on climate-damaging activities and make hydrocarbon-based energy production and consumption more expensive. As a result, firms in energy-intensive industries may react to higher energy prices by reducing production, which in turn would lead to lower employment. In the presence of frictions in labor markets, these sector shifts will cause resources to be unemployed, at least in the short term. Using principal component analysis, the paper finds that Eastern European and Central Asian countries vary greatly in their vulnerability and adaptability of employment to carbon regulation. Since the economy takes time to adjust, policy-makers will need to ensure that the incentives are there for new firms to emerge and employ workers, and that workers have the skills to respond to that demand. Moreover, governments have a role to play in ensuring that workers that are displaced have a proper safety net that will not only help in protecting their welfare, but will also allow workers to make more efficient labor market transitions.
Users also downloaded
Showing related downloaded files
Publication Ukraine Country Environmental Analysis(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2016-01)The objective of the Country Environmental Analysis (CEA) is to assess the adequacy and performance of the policy, legal, and institutional framework for environmental management in Ukraine, in light of the decentralization process of environmental governance and wider reform objectives, and to provide recommendations to government to address the key gaps identified. Ukraine is the second largest country in Europe and has a population of 43 million, the majority of whom live in urban areas. It is a lower middle income country, with the services, industry and agriculture sectors being main contributors to the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Ukraine faces a number of environmental challenges, as identified in its National Environmental Strategy 2020 (NES). Key among these are: air pollution; quality of water resources and land degradation; solid waste management; biodiversity loss; human health issues associated with environmental risk factors; in addition to climate change. The scope of Ukrainian environmental legislation is quite broad and comprehensive (more than 300 legal acts) and covers most areas of environmental protection and natural resources management. However, the environmental legislation faces a number of weaknesses:The environmental legislation is largely declaratory in nature and does not have all the essential enforcement mechanisms for the implementation of legal acts and international agreements; Many of the acts are not coordinated with each other; and Legislation undergoes limited analysis of its impact—for example, no in-depth analysis such as Regulatory Impact Analysis is conducted for proposed pieces of legislation.Publication Thailand Monthly Economic Monitor, October 2025(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-10-22)Fiscal conditions remained stable, with a modest widening of the deficit to 3.1 percent of GDP. New stimulus measures are expected to support short-term demand without breaching the public debt ceiling. Inflation stayed negative, reflecting lower energy and food prices amid subdued domestic demand. The central bank kept the policy rate unchanged, citing limited policy space. Thailand’s growth momentum has slowed further as manufacturing activity and services weakened as projected. Tourism remained subdued, largely due to fewer Chinese visitors. Goods exports also slowed as earlier front-loaded orders faded, particularly in agriculture and industrial goods. The Thai baht depreciated in early October as the US dollar appreciated and the current account turned negative.Publication Digital Progress and Trends Report 2023(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-03-05)Digitalization is the transformational opportunity of our time. The digital sector has become a powerhouse of innovation, economic growth, and job creation. Value added in the IT services sector grew at 8 percent annually during 2000–22, nearly twice as fast as the global economy. Employment growth in IT services reached 7 percent annually, six times higher than total employment growth. The diffusion and adoption of digital technologies are just as critical as their invention. Digital uptake has accelerated since the COVID-19 pandemic, with 1.5 billion new internet users added from 2018 to 2022. The share of firms investing in digital solutions around the world has more than doubled from 2020 to 2022. Low-income countries, vulnerable populations, and small firms, however, have been falling behind, while transformative digital innovations such as artificial intelligence (AI) have been accelerating in higher-income countries. Although more than 90 percent of the population in high-income countries was online in 2022, only one in four people in low-income countries used the internet, and the speed of their connection was typically only a small fraction of that in wealthier countries. As businesses in technologically advanced countries integrate generative AI into their products and services, less than half of the businesses in many low- and middle-income countries have an internet connection. The growing digital divide is exacerbating the poverty and productivity gaps between richer and poorer economies. The Digital Progress and Trends Report series will track global digitalization progress and highlight policy trends, debates, and implications for low- and middle-income countries. The series adds to the global efforts to study the progress and trends of digitalization in two main ways: · By compiling, curating, and analyzing data from diverse sources to present a comprehensive picture of digitalization in low- and middle-income countries, including in-depth analyses on understudied topics. · By developing insights on policy opportunities, challenges, and debates and reflecting the perspectives of various stakeholders and the World Bank’s operational experiences. This report, the first in the series, aims to inform evidence-based policy making and motivate action among internal and external audiences and stakeholders. The report will bring global attention to high-performing countries that have valuable experience to share as well as to areas where efforts will need to be redoubled.Publication Regional Poverty and Inequality Update: Latin America and the Caribbean, October 2025(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-10-23)This brief summarizes recent facts related to poverty and inequality in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) using the latest wave of harmonized household surveys from the Socio-Economic Database for LAC (SEDLAC). This brief was produced by the Poverty Global Practice in the LAC Region of the World Bank.Publication Digital Africa(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-03-13)All African countries need better and more jobs for their growing populations. "Digital Africa: Technological Transformation for Jobs" shows that broader use of productivity-enhancing, digital technologies by enterprises and households is imperative to generate such jobs, including for lower-skilled people. At the same time, it can support not only countries’ short-term objective of postpandemic economic recovery but also their vision of economic transformation with more inclusive growth. These outcomes are not automatic, however. Mobile internet availability has increased throughout the continent in recent years, but Africa’s uptake gap is the highest in the world. Areas with at least 3G mobile internet service now cover 84 percent of Africa’s population, but only 22 percent uses such services. And the average African business lags in the use of smartphones and computers as well as more sophisticated digital technologies that catalyze further productivity gains. Two issues explain the usage gap: affordability of these new technologies and willingness to use them. For the 40 percent of Africans below the extreme poverty line, mobile data plans alone would cost one-third of their incomes—in addition to the price of access devices, apps, and electricity. Data plans for small- and medium-size businesses are also more expensive than in other regions. Moreover, shortcomings in the quality of internet services—and in the supply of attractive, skills-appropriate apps that promote entrepreneurship and raise earnings—dampen people’s willingness to use them. For those countries already using these technologies, the development payoffs are significant. New empirical studies for this report add to the rapidly growing evidence that mobile internet availability directly raises enterprise productivity, increases jobs, and reduces poverty throughout Africa. To realize these and other benefits more widely, Africa’s countries must implement complementary and mutually reinforcing policies to strengthen both consumers’ ability to pay and willingness to use digital technologies. These interventions must prioritize productive use to generate large numbers of inclusive jobs in a region poised to benefit from a massive, youthful workforce—one projected to become the world’s largest by the end of this century.