The substantiation of the national concept and regional prioritization of unemployment regulation is relevant for Ukraine. Preserving human potential and national security are the problems of unemployment in wartime. Ignoring this problem against the background of a decline in the well-being of the population can lead to an unemployment trap and poverty. Therefore, the issue of long-term, conversion, hidden, and stagnant unemployment in the context of the spread of forced partial, informal, and inadequate employment should be a priority for strengthening the resilience of society and the state. The analysis of the unemployment rate and the number of registered unemployed in Ukraine since February 2022 indicates downward trends (the number of registered unemployed reached its minimum value in December 2024, if analyzed since the 2000s). However, these trends are driven by numerous problems of wartime – demographic losses, mass forced emigration, decline of regional labor markets in frontline regions, mobilization of the population to the Armed Forces of Ukraine, decrease in demand for employment services among the male population. The identified reasons are risk indicators of pseudo-positive trends in the development of the Ukrainian labor market. The article suggests a national concept of unemployment regulation based on the results of the analysis, which involves combining the requirements of European integration and the implementation of proactive tools to support the unemployed through effective employment services. The reduction of unemployment should be achieved by stimulating employment in the areas of economic stability, recovery and growth. The recommendations for the regions include organizing systematic monitoring of regional labor markets; defining proactive tools to support the unemployed according to their needs; determining the size of unemployment benefits depending on the average monthly wage in the region, but taking into account restrictions at the national level; planning structural transformations of employment for the wartime economy, the economy of the «war freeze», the first and subsequent stages of post-war recovery, and a long-term development strategy; forecasting the scale of conversion unemployment depending on the number of mobilized persons; planning re-emigration measures; stimulating community activities in implementing measures to reduce unemployment. Unemployment regulation priorities should be adjusted in accordance with new security challenges, but it is imperative to maintain a regionalization approach. 

unemployment, employment service, proactive tools, unemployment benefits, conversion unemployment