Pervasive macroeconomic problems, including very highinflation, have contributed to a steady worsening ofenterprise finances and the labour market situation. Most workers were putting in eight hoursless than the standard work week. Exports have declined steadily since1992, the survey reports and fell sharply in the last yeardue to a decline in engineering products, which hadpreviously been among the most export-oriented sector. The absence of domestic growth and exports means thatcapacity utilisation rates are crashing and surplus labour isgrowing. Unemployment is edging upward, but hiddenunemployment is surging.
Women appear particularly vulnerablehere.
However fertilityrates are low in Ukraine and the percentage of women onmaternity leave was much greater in firms that hadexperienced declining sales, low capacity utilisation andrelatively high job cuts. Other methods of concealed unemployment include unpaidadministrative leave, short-time work and use of internaltransfers to avoid outright redundancies. But theworkers put on unpaid leave or unpaid employment aresuffering terribly, while distortions in the labour marketare multiplying. Another pronounced trend in Ukranian factories has beenthe growing number of workers who are paid practicallynothing, but are none the less expected to turn up for work,often in return for access to fringe benefits, such assubsidised food or health services. Two-thirds of allfirms admitted to having been in arrears on paying theirworkers' wages.