Weekend quarantine didn’t affect GDP, but unemployment increased – Shmyhal

Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal stated that after the weekend quarantine, GDP wasn't affected, but there's a second peak of unemployment complaints.

He said this in an interview with Ukrainian Pravda.

"Now we should note that weekend quarantine didn't have a significant impact on the economy. Why? Because GDP has changed very little from it. First, because people had a working week when they could buy everything they needed.

But the service sector and the entertainment sector, where many people and jobs are involved, have suffered the most. The impact on the country's GDP was insignificant, but the impact on the number of jobs is quite significant," the prime minister explained.

"We can say that the weekend quarantine affected the level of employment. It's a negative impact; it's monitored on schedules. At the beginning of the quarantine, we had 361 thousand unemployed registered. Today we have 420 thousand. A month ago it was 396.

You see that the number has risen after the weekend quarantine. Here's the answer: GDP hasn't suffered, but people did. We have the second peak of unemployment applications: the first was after the start of quarantine. Traditionally influenced by the end of the agricultural season, people are registering. But the weekend quarantine plated the role in these fluctuations of unemployment," the prime minister added.

According to him, 440,000 people have been employed since the beginning of the quarantine.

"440 thousand people received official employment through employment centers. In different places and in different industries: in agriculture and in construction … Of course, "Big Construction" has contributed significantly here," Shmyhal said.