What are salaries and vacancies in frontline regions in summer 2026

Despite the war and constant security risks, the labor market in frontline regions continues to operate. Employers maintain the highest demand for workers in trade, logistics, and services, while many office professions have almost disappeared from the list of vacancies. This is evidenced by a study by OLX Work, the results of which were published by Delo.ua.

What vacancies are most often offered in frontline regions

Analysts examined the labor market situation in the Zaporizhzhia, Kharkiv, Sumy, Kherson, and Mykolaiv regions.

Employers are primarily looking for:

• salespeople;

• drivers;

• laborers;

• cooks;

• loaders;

• baristas;

• sales consultants;

• auto mechanics;

• security guards.

The number of vacancies for salespeople has even increased by 2% over the year. The highest salaries for this category are offered in the Kherson region – 16.3 thousand UAH per month.

What salaries are offered to workers

The best-paying mass profession is that of drivers. In the Kharkiv region, the median salary reached 32.5 thousand UAH.

In other regions, the figures also remain relatively high:

• Kherson region – 30 thousand UAH;

• Zaporizhzhia region – 27.5 thousand UAH;

• Sumy region – 27.5 thousand UAH;

• Mykolaiv region – 27.5 thousand UAH.

Among laborers, the highest earnings are in the Kharkiv region – about 22.5 thousand UAH. In the Zaporizhzhia region, employers offer approximately 21 thousand UAH, and in the Sumy and Mykolaiv regions – about 20 thousand UAH.

Cooks in the Mykolaiv and Zaporizhzhia regions can expect to be paid 18.5-19 thousand UAH, while in the Kherson region, the pay is around 15 thousand UAH.

What professions have almost disappeared from the labor market

The research showed that over the past year, the number of vacancies for office and narrowly specialized specialists has sharply decreased in frontline regions.

Practically no vacancies are recorded for:

• brokers;

• sales department managers;

• managers;

• supervisors;

• lawyers;

• copywriters;

• auditors;

• photographers;

• SMM managers.

Experts explain this by stating that businesses are focusing on ensuring basic processes: trade, logistics, repairs, manufacturing, and customer service.

At the same time, the number of responses to many vacancies is decreasing. The most significant drop in interest has been recorded among builders, salespeople, seamstresses, and auto mechanics. This may indicate a further outflow of the working population to safer regions of Ukraine.