In December 2023, the Work.ua service launched the opportunity to attract specialists to the Ukrainian Defense Forces. A list of departments and their vacancies was collected on a separate page. After several months of work, the service sums up the first results of this initiative.
The first results of the project to recruit specialists into the Defense Forces indicate that it is effective. In December 2023, the first month of the project, 146 departments posted 821 vacancies. Already in January 2024, the number of departments with job offers reached 286 (+95% compared to December), and vacancies – 1,586 (+93%). Defense force vacancies make up just under 2% of the total on Work.ua.
Departments that had more job offers:
Marine Corps of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (93 vacancies), Military unit A4085 (52), 104 OBR Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (45), Military unit A4759 (39), Recruiting center of the Forces of the Troops of the Armed Forces of the Armed Forces (38).
Units post job offers in different categories, since the army needs different professions: both combat and non-combat. In January 2024, the most vacancies were in the following categories (note that one vacancy can be posted in several categories at once):
1206 – “Security, safety”; 250 – “Transport, auto business”; 196 – “Telecommunications and communications”; 180 – “Medicine, pharmaceuticals”; 145 – “Working professions, production.”
Today, job offers from the Ukrainian Defense Forces cover almost all categories – 23 out of 28 possible. For example, there are jobs for lawyers, marketers and even directors.
For the most part, candidates with no work experience can respond to vacancies from the Defense Forces – 73% of such offers. Accordingly, in 27% of vacancies applicants are expected to have experience. This situation is opposite to the general trends of the labor market, where 35% of job offers are suitable for beginners, and 65% for people with experience.
In January, Defense Force units received 20,519 reviews from applicants on the Work.ua website, which is twice as many as in December. Consequently, Ukrainians are interested in vacancies in the army, because competition for these positions is no lower than the average in the labor market.
However, it is quite uneven. Most often, applicants respond to vacancies in the following categories:
“Culture, music, show business” (only a few vacancies were posted, which resulted in the highest competition for these positions); “Secretariat, office work”; “Finance, bank”; “Personnel management, HR”; “Accounting, auditing.”
But the lowest competition is in the categories “Transport, auto business”, “Medicine, pharmaceuticals”, “Agriculture, agribusiness”. In general, blue-collar professions and medical specialties are now the most scarce in the labor market.
The gender balance in military recruiting differs somewhat from the general situation in the labor market, where the share of men and women is 40% and 60%, respectively. But for Defense Force vacancies, the proportion of applicants who respond to vacancies is almost equal: 51% men and 49% women. At the same time, it is predominantly women who respond to vacancies as a physician, paramedic, accountant, and clerk. Men are more likely to respond to positions such as electrician, dog handler, grenade launcher, sapper, chaplain, squad commander, drone repair engineer, and driver. Approximately the same number of applicants of both sexes respond to vacancies for web designer, military cook, psychologist, and deputy chief of staff.
Among men and women, people from 35 to 44 years old most often respond. But among men there is a tendency that a significant part of the candidates are people over 45, while among women we see more activity from young people 18-24 years old. It is also interesting that among the active applicants there were several dozen people under 18 years of age.
The distribution of applicants who responded to military professions by region of residence is practically no different from the similar distribution of applicants who responded to any vacancies on the labor market. This difference remains within the statistical error – does not exceed 1%. For example, residents of the Kharkov region make up 5% of all applicants active in the labor market, and within the framework of military recruiting – 4.5%.