Human Resources

In terms of human resources, Ukraine is at par with the most advanced economies of Central and Eastern Europe (see table below). At the same time, Ukraine’s human resources are cheaper than in Russia and 2,5 times cheaper than in Czech Republic.

Table: Human Capital

 

Urbanisation
% of pop

Life expec- tancy,
Years

Infant mort,
Per 1,000 births

Secondary school,
% of cohort

Patent appli- cations (2004), residents

Avg wage,
US$/month (2010)

Czech R.
74
77.19
3.73
99
619
739
Hungary
68
74.79
5.31
99.49
738
516
Poland
61
76.05
6.54
99.8
2,381
612
Romania
57
73.98
11.02
97.3
937
515
Russia
73
66.29
10.08
99.4
22,944
675
Slovakia
75
75.83
6.59
99.6
214
857
Ukraine
60
68,58
8,54
99.4
4,086
300

Citation:

Factors of production-labor and capital – were and remain (at least this is true about labor) very “cheap” and, therefore, competitive. A very low salary level is evidence of this, whereas at the beginning of the economic growth period five years ago there was also evidence of excess capacity.

Lorenzo FIGIUOLI, IMF Senior Resident Representative in Ukraine
Mirror Weekly #32 August 2004