To legalize the work of employees

Coronavirus as an assistant

Growth and contraction

The transparency of timber auctions has improved

Predicting future furniture trends

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

1. The Government supported the draft law on deregulation of labor relations, aimed at modernizing and liberalizing labor legislation of Ukraine.

“This is an important bill that eliminates the excessive bureaucratization of labor relations that has remained since the days of the Soviet Union and does not correspond to modern economic realities. Adoption of the law will reduce the burden on business and help legalize the work of employees. This is relevant for any employer, “commented Igor Dyadyura, Deputy Minister for Digital Development, Digital Transformations and Digitization.

2. The COVID-19 pandemic has killed millions of jobs, causing employment to fall 14 times more than it did after the decade-long financial crisis. However, the labor market is forecast to recover quickly after the pandemic.

There is no disaster without good: the coronavirus helps to transform the labor market faster because it reveals those aspects that need to be improved for a long time. Experts are convinced that the coronavirus will eventually improve the situation by accelerating the changes that began before the epidemic.

3. More than 62% of enterprises in Ukraine plan to increase salaries for employees, about 35% forecast salaries at the current level and about 2% of companies plan to gradually reduce salaries by the end of the year. This is evidenced by data from the National Bank for the first quarter of 2021. For the third quarter in a row, wage expectations in Ukraine have shown steady growth.   

At the same time, for the sixth consecutive quarter, another indicator remained unchanged: according to the respondents, the number of employees at their enterprises will continue to decrease.     

4. The March auction for the sale of untreated wood was conducted using special software APS Forest, developed by the state enterprise “Forestry Innovation and Analytical Center” in conjunction with the contractor. According to the general director of the enterprise Yuriy Sotnyk, the software product helps to ensure the transparency of bidding and provides real competition between buyers.

To provide domestic users with wood, 27 auctions were organized in the second quarter, during which more than 560,000 cubic meters of wood were sold. At the same time, the growth of a number of starting prices amounted to more than 100%, which in monetary terms for some items is more than 20,000 hryvnias per cubic meter. At some auctions, more than 200 bids were set by bidders. The total revenue from the sale of timber through APS Forest for enterprises in the industry increased by over UAH 314 million: from almost UAH 893.8 million (starting figure) to UAH 1,208.2 million. (selling).

5. For the Swedish furniture brand Offecct, which prefers furniture innovations, Japanese designer Gene Kuramoto created a chair made of flax and bio-resin fibres, which has already become the best product at the Stockholm Furniture Fair. This is because Swedish furniture makers aim to research and develop new materials, predicting future furniture trends.

Kuramoto developed his own method, which makes it possible to create thin layers of flax fibre and superimpose them on each other, thus forming not only the back and seat of the chair but also its frame.