Why labour market figures from different sources do not match
In short: each source counts its own part of the market and its own unit. Numbers can only be compared within one source and one definition.
How many vacancies: four different numbers
Even within the Employment Service there are several numbers about vacancies. All of them are correct, but they answer different questions.
| What is counted | Number | Period |
|---|---|---|
| Vacancies registered with the service during the period (from all of the service's sources) | 314,435 | January–August 2026 |
| Vacancies at the end of the month | 78,348 | end of August 2026 |
| Vacancies at the end of the month for which the service calculates the offered salary (without data on military personnel) | 50,559 | end of August 2026 |
| Ads in the open list of vacancies (form 3-PN) | 35,672 | 1 October 2026 |
The first number is a flow over several months: all vacancies that came in. The second is a stock on one date. The third is part of the stock. The fourth is the open list, where one ad can describe several jobs. The Employment Service does not explain all the differences between these numbers, so we show them separately and do not mix them.
Job sites publish their own numbers: how many ads employers posted in a month. One vacancy often appears on several sites and at the Employment Service at the same time, so these numbers cannot be added up.
What salary: average, median, offered
- Derzhstat's average salary is UAH 31,892 (August 2026). This is the salary actually accrued to full-time employees of large and medium-sized enterprises.
- The median salary in the Employment Service's vacancies is UAH 15,000 (1 October 2026). This is what employers promise in the ads they submitted to the service.
- The average offered salary according to the service is UAH 15,747 (end of August 2026).
The average is always higher than the median because a few very high salaries pull it up. Employment Service vacancies are mostly blue-collar jobs, retail, services and public-sector bodies. That is why their salary is lower than the average for the economy. This does not mean employers "understate" pay: it is a different group of jobs.
Unemployment: registered and by the ILO definition
Registered unemployed people are those with status at the Employment Service (92,579 at the end of August 2026). The unemployment rate by the methodology of the International Labour Organization is calculated from the labour force survey. It covers everyone who is looking for work, so it is always much larger. Derzhstat resumed this survey in 2026; there is no open data for 2022–2026 yet.
What can be compared
- The change in one indicator in one source over a year: yes.
- Regions or industries within one source: yes, taking coverage into account.
- The Employment Service's number of vacancies with the number of ads on job-search sites: no.
- The median salary in vacancies with Derzhstat's average salary: only as two separate pictures, without a conclusion about “how much people are underpaid”.