Since the beginning of the war, 11% of people with disabilities have lost their jobs

The number of employed people with disabilities (PwDs) has decreased by 11% since the beginning of 2022. Such data were made public during the round table "Employment of persons with disabilities: challenges and opportunities for Ukraine in modern conditions" held by the Confederation of Employers of Ukraine with the support of the International Labor Organization on May 24 of this year.

According to the Institute of Professional Qualifications, by the beginning of 2022, 471,000 PwDs were employed, as of April 2022, their number had decreased to 419,000, i.e. by 11% less.

In total, since the beginning of 2022, the State Employment Centre has employed 8,900 PwDs from among those who applied for employment assistance. "The economy has the potential to attract up to 1.5 million people with disabilities to the labor market, but for many reasons this does not happen. Our goal is to change the situation in the country," said Oleksiy Miroshnychenko, president of the Confederation of Employers of Ukraine.

Lack of information about their professional skills is among the main reasons that inhibit the participation of PwDs in the labor market. Many of these people can perform duties that don't require physical efforts, such as call center operators or accountants. "The search for people with disabilities with certain skills is greatly delayed because the pool of candidates may not include those from whom to choose. There is a choice: take a person with a disability or a person with skills. And employers often choose a person with skills, and a person with a disability is offered to "put in" labor in order to fulfil the quota for employment of vulnerable groups representatives," explained Natalya Slynko, operational director of the GRC recruiting agency.

Lyubov Bershaska, Director of the employment policy implementation department of the State Employment Centre, points out the problem of lack of information about the qualifications of people with disabilities. "Our priority today is employment of people with disabilities, internally displaced persons and veterans. The State Employment Centre works with those people who have registered as unemployed. Currently, there are more than 2,000 vacancies for people with disabilities, but we do not have enough candidates. Together, we need to create a single format for the portrait of a job seeker with a disability. A large percentage of such people can work at home, but there are no such vacancies from employers," said Lyubov Bershadska.

The second reason that limits the employment of PwDs is the lack of confidence of employers that they will be able to arrange a workplace for such people and that they will feel comfortable in the team. To dispel this myth, the Confederation of Employers of Ukraine implements the project "Employment of people with disabilities - new opportunities for employers", which is implemented with the support of the International Labor Organization.

The third reason is the lack of efficient incentives for employers to employ people from vulnerable groups. Administrative and economic sanctions are not effective either as an incentive for hiring persons with disabilities, or as a source of funding for the Social Protection Fund for Persons with Disabilities, the participants of the round table noted.