The government is working on incentives for businesses to hire veterans that are not linked to tax breaks, Veterans Affairs Minister Vitalii Kim said.
"Right now veterans make up 6-7% of all people working in Ukraine. When the guys and girls come back from the battlefield, plus all their families, that will be up to 10 million people. That's a third of the economy. This isn't a separate category of people, this isn't about creating separate jobs for them. That's impossible. We have a program to create 100,000 jobs. But I know it's impossible to create 100,000 jobs all at once, so businesses can be adapted to take veterans on. Documents on this have already been signed, and the fund is working on it. About 120 companies have already signed up," Kim said at a news conference in Kyiv on Thursday, commenting on the issue of veteran employment.
He said that, among other things, there is a program for veterans to move into the police force, since there is currently a shortage of about 10,000 vacancies there.
"Separately, the government is working on creating incentives. I won't say whether that's tax-related or something else - that's not what this is about. But additional incentives for businesses to hire veterans are being worked out. The groundwork is there, because businesses want this, they're grateful to our military, and they want to respond and create jobs. This process is already underway and the program has been developed," the minister said.
He said that large enterprises and businesses already have separate professions and retraining programs for veterans, as well as jobs, including for people with disabilities.
Kim noted that 330,000 veterans are currently registered in Ukraine as unemployed, but he believes about 200,000 of them are working "in the shadows."
"One of the tasks is to pull veterans from the gray zone into the white zone. I think if veterans get additional payments - not to reveal too much - or incentives, that will push their employer to move to the 'white side' and pay taxes," the minister said.
