Total wage arrears in Ukraine in February 2016 decreased by UAH 79.1 million, or 3.8%, reaching UAH 2.013 billion as of March 1, 2016, the State Statistics Service has reported.

Wage arrears at economically active enterprises in February 2016 decreased by 6.1%, to UAH 1.395 billion.

Growth in wage arrears in February this year was observed in Kharkiv (41.6%), Chernihiv (by 36.8%), Cherkasy (25.1%), Kyiv (by 23.1%), Zaporizhia (21.8%), Kherson (14.1%), Ternopil (10.7%) and Sumy (10.6%) regions.

At the same time, wage arrears decreased in Mykolaiv (28.5%) and Zhytomyr (14.4%) regions.

According to the State Statistics Service, in February 2016 the share of industry of total wage debt was 71.3%, and that for transport, warehouses, portal and courier delivery was 11.7%. Over half of the debt was formed in Luhansk (24.7%), Donetsk (19.4%) and Kharkiv (9.4%) regions.

The amount of wage arrears decreased in industry to UAH 1.436 billion (by 6.1%), construction to UAH 96.724 million (by 2.9%), wholesale and retail, repair of vehicles to UAH 17.796 million (by 2.9%), financial and insurance activities to UAH 12.174 million (by 4.7%), accommodation and catering services to UAH 2.752 million (by 20.9%) and IT and telecommunications to UAH 2.752 million (by 20.9%).

The amount of wage arrears in transport and warehouses, postal and courier activities grew to UAH 234.789 million (by 3.5%), professional and research activities to UAH 139.857 million (by 6.6%), healthcare and social assistance provision to UAH 8.386 million (by 78.2%), public administration and defense and mandatory social insurance to UAH 4.766 million (by 6.9%).