While the number of vacancies in the Ukrainian IT market is decreasing, the number of blue-collar jobs is growing, but there are not enough candidates. The problem is further complicated by the fact that, according to Roman Prokofiev, co-founder of Jooble, all job search services have historically been designed for office workers.
Recent years Jooble is actively working to speed up the job search for the so-called «blue collar» in Ukraine. In particular, machine learning is being used for this purpose.
Roman Prokofiev told MC.today journalist how employment in blue-collar jobs differs from job search for «white-collar jobs, why speed is critical, and how machine learning at Jooble helps candidates find jobs.
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Hiring market in 2024 in Ukraine and globally
Compared to 2022-2023, the number of vacancies in developed Western economies, such as the United States, Germany, Britain, and France, has decreased. This applies to all areas, from the IT market to blue-collar jobs. This was mainly influenced by expectations for the future. The United States, which is the main driver of the global economy, was preparing for a recession, and although it did not occur, it did not happen, companies invested more cautiously and launched fewer new projects.
Also, the interest rates of all the world’s central banks are very high now. This means that money is expensive — this is how the government controls inflation. And expensive money affects investments – as long as rates remain high, it is useless to expect the market to change dramatically. Personnel is always a derivative of the economy.
The situation in Ukraine is similar to the global situation with a decrease in the number of vacancies only in the IT market, which, in addition to a full-scale war, is affected by uncertainty about booking people and the impossibility of business trips. Due to these factors, many Ukrainian companies are relocating to countries with similar prices or a time zone close to Ukraine.
But among working specialties, we have more offers than people who are ready to work. The number of vacancies has hardly changed since 2022, but many have left.
There are no surprises by region The South and East are the most affected. Even if there are courageous and brave entrepreneurs left there, it is very difficult for them to find people. The best situation is in the West, where many IDPs have migrated, and in Kyiv, which remains a magnet as the capital.
How do «blue collar» differ from other areas
Historically, all global and Ukrainian job search services were invented for «white-collar» office workers. Although there are fewer such specialists, they are more expensive. So «blue collar» workers could, of course, use the same resources, but no one has developed functions directly for them.
The simplest example: every service requires an email address to register. But many plumbers and drivers don’t have one, and neither do they have a resume. Why? To describe on two pages how you have been laying tiles for 10 years?
It sounds like a joke, but it’s the most common request from employers: «Give me just adequate builders».
- find a vacancy;
- to apply;
- call the employer;
- meet offline;
- get to work quickly.
Why is speed important? «White collar» usually have a financial cushion of a month or two to find a job. The «blue collars» don’t have that luxury. They have three days’ worth of money and need to find a new job very quickly.
To realize this idea, we:
- improve search with machine learning;
- automate search engine profile checks;
- track what happens to job applications and inform users about it.
How machine learning at Jooble is improving search services
We have been using machine learning since 2013. Let’s take a look at how it works using the example of a popular query – «shift work». Such candidates consider all vacancies that match their skills and requirements in terms of salary, location, etc. All this is understood and taken into account by the ML model. It also understands which vacancies will appeal to the candidate based on the analysis of their profile and behavior. That is, the same search for different people will bring up different vacancies in a different order.
Our ML-models are a metric that includes whether we have found a job that suits the user, whether they have opened it, or whether they have applied. That’s why we show the vacancies of employers that are not interesting to people for some reason last. Of course, this affects the profit. But our mission is to help people find jobs. That is, we provide services to recruiters and companies, but our main client is a search engine.
This mission did not take long to form. But somewhere in 2014, we came to the conclusion that to achieve long-term success, the job seeker must be the main one. The candidate is the person who decides where he or she will work regardless of the market conditions.
We filter all company decisions through the mission. For example, when the company was going through a difficult time, one of the product managers suggested placing an ad unit in the middle of the search results. It would bring in more than $200 thousand a month. But we asked ourselves: «Will this help anyone find a job?» No. So we didn’t do it.
Startup incubator Jooble: current projects for blue-collar jobs
In 2022, we launched a startup incubator, where we offer its participants not only financial assistance but also expert advice. This way, we increase their chances of success. Therefore, when choosing whether to invest in a project, we look not only at the potential profit. We came to this approach when we saw that the most successful projects that broke even in eight months were related to work and employment. We were able to share our expertise.
We have invested in 10 projects since our startup incubator was founded. Four of them have already closed – people have moved to other teams. The average investment price tag is about $250 thousand. We do not plan to invest in 2024, we will plan for 2025, depending on the results of the projects that are currently working. These include aggregation in other areas, Early Wage Access, programming solutions for the employment sector, and tools to improve the efficiency of recruiters.
We usually choose teams that target foreign markets, as the amount of money available in Ukraine is incomparable to other markets. For example, there is a company in America that spends more on job advertising than all employers in Ukraine. That is the project should at least have a model that can be easily scaled.
In other cases, we focus on how the project will benefit Ukraine. For example, we have invested in a service that implements the concept of Earned Wage Access, a new business model for Ukraine that is already working in other countries and is very relevant for blue-collar jobs. It allows you to get paid for the time you’ve worked, say, 10 days, even if your paycheck is still a few weeks away. You don’t need to take out loans or borrow money, you just send a request to the employer and you’re done.
This is a service for improving the lives of «blue collar workers». It is not related to employment as such, but it can significantly increase the retention of people in the company. There is such a thing as attrition, a metric that shows how often people leave the company and new people come in. In areas where there are «blue-collar workers» attrition can reach 200%, that is, the team is completely changed twice in one year.
Improving the labor market for «blue-collar» is an evolutionary process
«Blue-collar workers» need not only recruitment services, but also legal and financial services. Unfortunately, most of this market in Ukraine operates «in the black», so people are unprotected. To help with this, we are thinking about expanding our services, but we do not yet know what they should be to be useful.
To change the situation, we need the consciousness of businesses to create alternatives, and the consciousness of job seekers who will choose only this alternative. This is an evolutionary process that cannot be stimulated by force.
It is the same with wages. The portrait of «blue-collar» is very similar around the world, but Ukraine has a much larger wage gap.
For example, in the US, a developer earns $120 thousand a year, while a plumber earns $67 thousand.
Because of this, there is more respect for these professions abroad and a shortage of specialists. In Europe, it sometimes takes several weeks to wait for a plumber. In Ukraine, this is unimaginable.
However, the situation is changing, albeit slowly. But will construction workers ever become new IT professionals, especially given the need to rebuild? I think that we will probably see a large migration after the victory. We just haven’t faced it yet: on the contrary, there is an outflow and no one is migrating to us. But Europe and the United States are drowning in this problem. Locals don’t want to go to work with low wages, and for migrants it’s a lot of money. The same will happen in Ukraine when the reconstruction begins.
Author: journalist MC.today Victoria Pushkina.