QUALIFICATION GAP IN THE UKRAINIAN LABOUR MARKET IN THE CONTEXT OF WAR: REGIONAL ASPECT

The aim of the article is to assess the impact of the war on the state of regional labour markets and the qualification gap for professions requiring higher education. Methodology. In the course of the research, the author used general scientific (analysis and synthesis, induction and deduction, analytical grouping) and special (abstraction, modelling, benchmarking studies, etc.) methods of studying economic phenomena and processes. Results. A study was carried out on the labour market situation among individuals with higher education across the following professional groups: executives and managers; and professionals and specialists in six Ukrainian oblasts (Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhzhia, Kyiv, Odesa, Kharkiv, and Khmelnytskyi) and the city of Kyiv, with regard to the existence of a qualification gap. Given that employers' requests primarily shape the job market, the situation for groups of professions requiring higher education was studied, and the availability of the relevant unemployed was compared over time. The qualification gap was determined based on the following considerations. If an employer publishes a need for a specialist in a particular profession (qualification), then if there are unemployed people in the same profession, it means that they do not meet the employer's needs. If they did, then there would be no unemployed. The author proposes a methodology for quantifying the level of the qualification gap, analysing it in dynamics and for any region (regardless of the number of labour force and size) based on the determination of the gap coefficient. It was used to make a comparative assessment of the existence, level and dynamics of changes in the qualification gap for 6 oblasts of Ukraine and the city of Kyiv for specialists with higher education. Possible causes of the qualification gap are identified and analysed. Practical significance. The results have practical implications and can be used to develop measures to overcome the qualification gap in the labour market for people with higher education in times of war and with due regard for the needs of the country's post-war recovery. Relevance/Originality. The novelty of the study is that it proposes a methodology for quantifying the level of the qualification gap, which allows for comparative assessments, regardless of the quantitative characteristics of the labour force and jobs (size) in the region. This made it possible to analyse the situation with the qualification gap in each of the analysed regions and the city of Kyiv, to compare them by this indicator and to identify possible causes of the phenomenon and the impact of migration processes. The analysis showed that there is a potential to overcome the qualification gap both during the war and at the stage of post-war reconstruction of the country.