Russia Ukraine war, page-230424

Ukraine confronts labor shortage as need for soldiers drains workforce (msn.com)

But “without Western financial aid, the Ukrainian economy would collapse,” said Serhiy Fursa, an economist and deputy director of Dragon Capital, an investment firm in Kyiv.

Rolling blackouts across the country from repeated Russian strikes on energy infrastructure interrupt work or force businesses to invest in costly generators. That has also scared away some private foreign investment. Ukraine is still expected to experience relative economic growth of about 4 percent this year, but it would be more if not for the workforce shortage, Fursa said.

For example, he said, metals factories could increase their production if not for the shortage of staff. He projected that the mobilization of 200,000 to 300,000 new soldiers would reduce economic growth by about 0.5 percent.

“But this pressure could increase if many people get scared and leave the labor market,” Fursa said. “If 200,000 to 300,000 people are mobilized, many may decide it’s better to hide from draft officers somewhere than go to work, leading them to leave the labor market. In that case, the impact on economic indicators could be much greater. It’s impossible to calculate this accurately because we don’t know how many people are currently hiding and not working.”