Kommersant: the incomes of labor migrants increased in 2021 
According to the World Bank, in 2021 the volume of low- and middle-income countries will surpass pre-pandemic levels. According to Kommersant, this can be considered evidence of an increase in the income of labor migrants who send part of their earnings home.
The World Bank predicts that the volume of transfers will increase by 7.3 percent from the crisis year of 2020, when the indicator fell by 1.7 percent. Remittances are expected to reach $ 589 billion in 2021. According to the Central Bank, in the third quarter of 2021, transfers from Russia exceeded the figure for the same period of 2020 by 10 percent. This dynamics may be due to the low number of migrants in 2020 compared to previous years due to pandemic restrictions.
The World Bank estimates that remittances from the US and Europe are growing as economies recover from the crisis. The increase in remittances is positively influenced by government stimulation of markets and employment support programs. In Russia, remittances are recovering on the back of rising oil prices, which have revived the economy.
An increase in the share of remittances in world GDP is considered by the UN as one of the tasks to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals in the field of migration. The funds sent home should support household spending on essential goods. Michal Rutkovsky, Director of the Department of Global Practice for Social Protection and Employment of the World Bank, believes that migrant remittances significantly complement state programs to help families facing financial problems during the crisis due to the pandemic. Remittances from abroad account for over 25 percent of GDP for Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.
At the same time, remittances from Russia are growing not due to the number of migrants, but due to an increase in their earnings. The number of migrants, according to the RANEPA and the Gaidar Institute, decreased by several million people. In 2019, there were from 9.6 million to 11.2 million migrants in the country, at the end of 2020 – 7.1 million. Currently, according to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the number of foreign workers in the country is 5.5 million. The fall in the number of migrants led to a shortage in the labor market and an increase in wages. The average transfer from Russia increased from $ 261 in the third quarter of 2020 to $ 277 in the third quarter of 2021.
Earlier in November, Russian companies complained of a shortage of workers. A number of enterprises had to increase salaries in order to attract new employees and close vacancies, as well as spend money on equipment that would be able to perform part of the tasks in conditions of a lack of personnel. A record low unemployment rate with a large number of vacancies was noted by the chairman of the Central Bank Elvira Nabiullina. She predicts that salaries in the country will continue to rise as employers will have to compete for employees.