Without Work or Wages, But With Subsidy

As of October 1998, the unemployment level in Ukraine was 11.3%, the highest rates in Western Ukraine, Kirovohrad, Rivne, and Zaporizhzhia oblasts. The situation is further complicated by the ever-growing imbalance between workforce supply and demand along with an increasing demographic load. Today, 100 gainfully-employed individuals care for an average 71, and even up to 90 in some areas, nonworking ones.

According to the minister, the phenomenon of social payment arrears that emerged in 1992 "turned into one of the most acute social problems" in 1998. Total wage and salary arrears are Hr 6.9 billion. Mr. Sakhan noted that, since half the citizens have a gross income below the official poverty line of Hr 73.7 per month, arrears are "a constant factor of growing social tension in society," Interfax-Ukraine reports.