WASHINGTON, July 23. /TASS/. A new wave of mobilization in Ukraine will seriously harm the Ukrainian economy, because it will increase the workforce shortage, The Washington Post says.
According to the op-ed, the Ukrainian businesses "expect that workers will be even harder to find" in case of a new mobilization, which will "further strain Ukraine’s crippled economy." The newspaper points out that there are more openings than jobseekers in Ukraine, which forces businesses to raise wages to compete or risk shutting down otherwise.
The Washington Post notes that the workforce deficit will only increase as the conflict continues and the pressure on the Ukrainian economy, which already depends on foreign aid, will keep growing.
Ukrainian economist Sergey Fursa told the newspaper that the mobilization frightens the Ukrainians, who are more likely to hide from the draft than go to work.
"But this pressure could increase if many people get scared and leave the labor market," he said. "If 200,000 to 300,000 people are mobilized, many may decide it’s better to hide from draft officers somewhere than go to work, leading them to leave the labor market." He added that it is impossible to precisely assess the effect of the mobilization on the economy, because it is unknown, how many people currently sty in hiding and do not work.
The Ukrainian authorities do everything they can to prevent men from avoiding military service. Forced mobilization has not been met with open arms in Ukrainian society; men of conscription age seek to leave the country by any means, often risking their lives. Despite that, on April 16, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky signed a controversial law tightening mobilization rules, making it possible to draft hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians to the armed forces.