Support for the de-shadowing of the national economy

Offer for those who have a course on robotization of production

Online sales are showing steady growth

Work four days? Why not?

“IKEA” and dubious wood

Everything that happened last week in Ukraine and the world and that is relevant for the furniture maker, read in our digest:

1. The American-Ukrainian Business Council (USUBC), one of Ukraine’s largest business associations, has stated its support for the de-shadowing of the national economy and the fight against tax offences by the State Fiscal Service. It is for strict compliance with the law and at the same time the inevitability of punishment for financial offences to become a stable basis for achieving economic security of the country and the destruction of the infrastructure of shadow markets.

2. Alphabet has announced the creation of a new division that will develop software for industrial robots. ” Intrinsic” will develop software that “facilitate the use of industrial robots, make it cheaper and more flexible so that greater number of producers could use them to create new products and services.” The new company intends to look for industrial partners, especially among those who use industrial robots and want to improve.

3. In two years, the average income of Ukrainian online sellers, including furniture companies earning on international trading platforms, increased 1.5 times, or 49%. During this period, the number of such sellers increased by 14%. 

In the first quarter of 2021, the highest average income of online sellers from Odesa – their average income was 16% higher than that of Kyiv. And in two years the average income of Dnipro residents (+ 72%) and Kyiv residents (+ 70%) grew the most.

4. 71.3% of Ukrainian employers are ready to switch to a four-day working week in their company. This is evidenced by the results of a survey of the job search portal “Jooble”. It is noted that it is a matter of changing companies’ internal processes so that their products or services remain available to customers.

72% of respondents believe that the transition to a four-day workweek will give their employees more time for personal life. Employers are also convinced that changing employees ‘schedules will reduce companies’ office costs (for example, electricity and paper), increase employee loyalty to companies, facilitate more efficient work tasks, and positively affect self-discipline.

It is noteworthy that more than half of the respondents – 52.5% – consider realistic the possibility of introducing a four-day working week in Ukraine.

5. According to Swedish experts, Earthlight, every two minutes someone on the planet buys IKEA products that contain questionable wood from Russia. The authors of the investigation emphasize that the forests of Siberia contain the same amount of carbon as the forests of the Brazilian Amazon. Meanwhile, the activities of unscrupulous loggers supplying raw materials to IKEA and other retail chains are one of the causes of the huge loss of biodiversity in the region and significantly increase the risk of forest fires.