Starting from March 2020, 18.8% of Ukrainian companies were forced to reduce salaries to their employees due to quarantine; 72.4% reported that quarantine did not affect their work, and therefore there was no revision of salaries, and 8.8% of companies, on the contrary, increased them this year.

The relevant data are provided in the results of a survey conducted among Ukrainian employers by the job search site Jooble (Kyiv), the company's press service reported on Tuesday.

According to a Jooble survey, 21.6% of companies faced staff cuts due to quarantine restrictions in 2020, while 78.4% said that they continue to work as usual.

Salary levels in 2020 changed in a minority of companies surveyed. Thus, 18.8% of companies reported a decrease in salaries, 72.4% left the salary fund unchanged. 8.8% of companies surveyed reported that, despite the quarantine, they even managed to increase salaries.

23.6% of surveyed employers announced their plans to increase wages for workers in 2021. 19.4% of companies decided to leave salaries unchanged. 1.4% of employers plan to reduce salaries, and almost half of them - 49.5% - have not yet decided on this issue.

Only 18.8% of companies offer full compensation for the costs associated with testing for COVID-19, and 11.7% offer partial compensation. Only 4.2% of enterprises plan to introduce a system of compensation for testing in the near future, while 58.2% do not plan to compensate for such expenses yet.

Jooble reports that in 2020, the approach to recruiting has also changed somewhat. For some companies, the new circumstances have become an impetus for active recruiting - 16.4% of quarantined companies surveyed by Jooble began to hire more employees than planned. 13.6% reconsidered their plans and reduced hiring due to quarantine.

Almost half of the respondents (46.8%) answered that there were no significant changes in their work due to quarantine, so they continued to hire people according to the plan. 23.2% announced a temporary suspension of new employees recruiting due to uncertainty about the prospects.

At the same time, almost a third of enterprises (30.6% of respondents) had a decrease in their recruiting budget, while 4.1% of companies, on the contrary, increased it. However, in most companies, the costs associated with recruiting have not changed - 65.3% of companies reported of such stability.

The study was conducted by Jooble analysts based on a survey of 300 Ukrainian employers from November 20 to December 11, 2020.