Challenges of Employment for Veterans: Key Barriers and Support Needs

More than half of Ukrainian veterans face serious obstacles when trying to find work after returning to civilian life. This data was obtained from the study “Employment of Veterans: Barriers and Adaptation Challenges,” conducted by the Ukrainian Veterans Fund of the Ministry of Veterans Affairs in collaboration with the platform robota.ua.

This is reported by AgroReview

Main Reasons for Employment Difficulties

Among the respondents, 57% reported encountering problems while searching for jobs after completing military service. The main barriers identified were:

• discrepancy between offered salaries and expectations and needs — 37.3%;
• health issues — 36.3%;
• complicated psycho-emotional state — 25.5%;
• instances of discrimination — 23.3%.

These same factors often lead to veterans being dismissed from their first job after returning from service.

According to the head of the fund’s analytical department, Anastasia Selyaninova, barriers can be conditionally divided into educational and value-based. During service, the civilian environment changes, and not all veterans can quickly adapt to the new labor market requirements. Moreover, society often does not fully understand the military experience, leading to tension and misunderstanding.

“The key to integrating veterans into civilian life lies in the joint actions of the state, business, and society. Veterans possess not only resilience and teamwork skills but also management competencies, experience in logistics, and decision-making in critical conditions. Often, it is the misunderstanding of these competencies that creates barriers, rather than their absence,” noted the Minister of Veterans Affairs Natalia Kalmykova.

Veterans’ Professional Skills and Demand for Support

During military service, veterans acquire a range of important skills. Among them:

• ability to quickly adapt to changes — 73%;
• provision of first aid — 67.4%;
• teamwork skills — 66.5%;
• people management — 64.6%.

The vast majority of these skills fall into the category of “soft skills,” which are highly valued in today’s labor market. According to a separate survey of employers, the most sought-after competencies include teamwork, adaptability, critical thinking, and communication skills.

Veterans emphasize the need for the following forms of support:

• retraining programs — 50%;
• job quotas — 49.7%;
• recognition of military experience as labor experience — 47.2%;
• additional education, psychological support, assistance with job searching — about 45%.

Among employers, only 32.9% already have retraining programs, 22.6% allow flexible schedules, and 21.9% implement psychological support. At the same time, 34.2% have no support programs or consider them ineffective.

More than 40% of employers are willing to give preference to candidates with veteran experience under equal conditions. However, for positions with lower qualification requirements, civilians are more often chosen.

According to labor market analytics, the demand for employees with combatant status in Ukraine is growing. Employers are increasingly indicating in job postings that they are open to hiring veterans, especially in logistics, manufacturing, security, and trade.

It is worth noting that the President of Ukraine has signed a law that provides veterans and individuals with disabilities due to war a 50% discount on mandatory civil liability insurance for vehicle owners (auto insurance). This benefit will be in effect from January 1, 2025 — during the martial law period and for one year after its conclusion.

According to the State Statistics Service, the average salary in Ukraine at the end of 2024 was 21,500 hryvnias.