Employers are not ready to hire foreigners en masse: the shortage of personnel in Ukraine is growing rapidly

Despite the record shortage of workers, Ukrainian business is not yet ready to massively recruit foreigners. Most employers predict a further worsening of the personnel crisis, but consider employing citizens of other countries only as a last resort.

This is evidenced by the results of the OLX Robota study.

The personnel shortage is intensifying

In 2026, 78% of employers reported a shortage of personnel. For comparison, a year earlier, 60% of companies reported a shortage of personnel.

At the same time, business is increasingly pessimistic about the prospects of the labor market. Thus, 68% of respondents are convinced that the personnel shortage will only worsen over the coming year. Only every tenth employer expects the situation to improve.

Why business is in no hurry to hire foreigners

Despite the shortage of workers, only 8% of employers are ready to consider employing foreigners as a possible way to solve the personnel problem. For comparison, in 2025 there were 13% of such companies.

The main reasons for the reluctance to attract foreign workers were:

51% – language barrier;

42% – lack of need to attract foreigners in their industry;
32% – complex legal procedures for document processing;
28% each – lack of experience working with foreign workers and cultural characteristics;
19% – unpreparedness of the team;
14% – lack of understanding where to look for such candidates.

OLX Robota notes that recently, employers have increasingly paid attention to the practical issues of integrating foreigners – language adaptation, legal registration and cultural differences.

Ukrainians are also cautious about the idea

The survey showed that similar sentiments prevail among Ukrainian job seekers.

Thus, 56% of respondents fear that with the involvement of foreigners, the interests of Ukrainian workers may recede into the background. Another 46% called the language barrier a problem, and 41% – possible cultural and religious differences.

Under what conditions is the business ready to change its position

Despite the current caution, employers admit that in the future they may more actively involve foreign specialists.

Most often, among the conditions they named:

tax benefits or financial support for employers – 36%;

further exacerbation of the shortage of Ukrainian workers – 36%;

guarantees of candidate qualifications – 29%;

simplification of the employment procedure;

state personnel search programs and successful experience of other companies – 22%.

Head of the OLX Work direction Maria Abdullina emphasized that the issue of employing foreigners is gradually moving from a theoretical to a practical level. At the same time, according to her, the main priority for Ukraine should remain the return and employment of Ukrainians who are abroad due to the war.