Employment in rural areas of Ukraine: tendencies and opportunities

The paper reviews the main tendencies and problems of rural employment in Ukraine. It has been concluded that the issue of rural employment could not be solved without a well-defined rural development policy and separately from other problems related to the rural regions. That is why it is necessary to implement in Ukraine the integrated rural policy which assumes a multisectoral approach to overcome the existing problems, to stimulate the economic diversity, and to expand non-agricultural activities in the rural areas. In order to develop the rural labour market it will be essential to achieve balance between the urban and rural areas, to create an attractive business environment, to build a stable rural financial system, and to develop physical and social infrastructures. In this paper the descriptive analysis is used to analyse tendencies and to identify opportunities for the increase in rural employment across the country.