He fled the war in Ukraine for Canada. Nearly a year later, he can't find a job and he's not alone

A Ukrainian man who fled the war with his family last spring says he has just weeks left before they'll run out of money to survive on Canadian soil.

Yuri Ivanenko, who speaks multiple languages and has decades of work experience, primarily as a sales or purchase manager, says he's applied to jobs at every level to no avail.

Living in a one-bedroom Toronto apartment with multiple generations of relatives, he estimates he has enough money left from a modest Ukrainian pension and selling his car back home to support his family for a couple more months. 

"I want to stay here longer, at least till the end of the war," said Ivanenko. "But if I cannot do it because of no job, no financing … I will have no other option but to fly back."

Not only has Ivanenko applied for jobs similar to his past roles, he's also applied for entry-level sales jobs that pay minimum wage. He knows he's overqualified for them, but says he'd be happy to accept them anyway. He also has profiles on multiple online job sites. 

But while he's had some interviews, he hasn't landed anything yet and says he hasn't received any feedback about what he's doing wrong. 

With the struggle to find a job increasingly difficult, the family is relying on a food bank.

"In all my life I've never been unemployed," he said. "This feeling of uncertainty, it's a very big concern."

One settlement specialist says Ivanenko is not alone in the often long journey for newcomers to find employment. 

"It's very common," said Svetlana Franz with Halton Multicultural Council Connections, an organization that offers support to Ukrainians and others trying to build a new life in Canada.

Organizations like HMC Connections help newcomers find employment by providing free resumé help, holding job fairs and getting on the phone with potential employers willing to hire Ukrainians or other immigrants, she says.

But newcomers and the organizations trying to help them don't usually get feedback from employers about why someone wasn't hired. 

"That's the biggest struggle that our clients are facing nowadays," she said.

"It might be that they need more help preparing for certain kinds of interviews, it might be their resumé wasn't tailored enough to the job or it might be another element a specialist can help with."