Working professions have burst into the wage leaders: facade workers are being offered 70 thousand

Over the past 4 years the labor market in Ukraine has seen noticeable changes in both salaries and demand for workers. The lists of the highest-paid and most in-demand vacancies have included more blue-collar professions, according to data from OLX Jobs for August 2022 and August 2026.

The highest median salary in August 2026 was offered to Heads of Sales Departments. Several blue-collar specialties also made the top five in terms of pay:

• 1st place — Head of Sales Department, 110 thousand UAH;
• 2nd place — plasterer, 80 thousand UAH;
• 3rd place — facade worker, 70 thousand UAH;
• tiler — 70 thousand UAH;
• mason — 65 thousand UAH.

For comparison, in August 2022 the salary ranking was led by long-haul truck drivers with a median of 40 thousand UAH. Repair specialists and facade workers were then offered 30 thousand UAH each, while realtors and auto body repairers received 27.5 thousand UAH.

Facade workers retained the 3rd position in the ranking, but their median salary over that period increased by 40 thousand UAH — almost 2.5 times.

The list of professions for which employers posted the most offers also changed. In August 2022 the demand ranking looked like this:

• drivers — 4468 vacancies, median salary 23 thousand UAH;
• salespeople — 4340 vacancies, 10.7 thousand UAH;
• sales managers — 2319 vacancies, 16.5 thousand UAH;
• seamstresses and tailors — 2121 vacancy, 15 thousand UAH;
• cooks — 2120 vacancies, 12.5 thousand UAH.

In August 2026 drivers ceded the top spot to salespeople, and general laborers and loaders entered the top five most in-demand professions:

• 1st place — salespeople, 9306 vacancies and median salary 24.2 thousand UAH;
• 2nd place — drivers, 8331 vacancies and 40 thousand UAH;
• 3rd place — general laborers, 5011 vacancies and 30 thousand UAH;
• 4th place — loaders, 4848 vacancies and 28.5 thousand UAH;
• 5th place — cooks, 3384 vacancies and 29.25 thousand UAH.

Over this time the median salary for drivers nearly doubled, while salespeople and cooks saw increases of more than 2 times. Overall, blue-collar professions began to appear more often simultaneously among the most in-demand and the highest-paid vacancies.

Previously we wrote:

• In which regions of Ukraine do they pay the most and to whom?
• There is a catastrophic shortage of workers: masons’ and plasterers’ salaries have soared to 60 thousand
• Labor market 2025 in Ukraine: where are the most vacancies and who is ready to be paid 100 thousand hryvnias
• How mobilization is turning the labor market into chaos
• In Ukraine salaries must be sharply raised: in some sectors there are 2 vacancies per candidate