NBU forecasts high unemployment in Q2 2020

National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) Governor Yakiv Smolii said this at the annual research conference "Labor Market and Monetary Policy" on Thursday, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

"We expect that the unemployment rate in our country due to the coronavirus crisis will reach a peak in the second quarter. This is 11.5% against 8.2% last year," Smolii said.

He noted that along with the gradual easing of quarantine measures, which began in late May, and the economic recovery, the unemployment rate will also decline in the second half of the year, although it will be higher than in the previous year. The dismissal of Ukrainians due to the “freezing” of business activity complicated the employment, increasing the load on one vacancy, and demonstrated that there would be no easy solution to the problem of labor migration in Ukraine.

As Ukrinform reported, the number of unemployed registered with the State Employment Service as of May 4, 2020 amounted to 456.8 thousand people, which is 48% more than on the same date last year.

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