Bloomberg: Labor shortage slows down the recovery of the Russian economy These are the conclusions reached by Bloomberg.
Millions of migrant workers left Russia after border closures in 2020. Entry restrictions have now been relaxed, but many do not want to return to the country because they are afraid to find themselves in a problematic situation due to the danger of new lockdowns. At the same time, according to the Russian Academy of National Economy and Public Administration under the President of Russia, the number of foreign workers decreased even before the start of the pandemic from 4.5 million to 3 million.
The labor market situation is complicated by a new wave of the pandemic. In Russia, only 40 percent of the population is fully vaccinated. The country has recorded nearly half a million coronavirus deaths since the start of the pandemic, according to Rosstat. One of the largest retailers in Russia X5 Retail Group (Pyaterochka, Perekrestok, Karusel and others) said that the increased mortality had a negative impact on the supply of labor.
Large companies face a shortage of employees. “In some regions, we have not been able to hire enough workers for a year now,” said Maxim Basov, general director of Rusagro. One of the largest agricultural companies in Russia had to raise salaries by ten percent and invest in harvesting machines to compensate for the shortage of labor.
Construction company Samolet Group has also raised wages as well as working conditions to address the shortage of workers. Nearly half of the jobs at the start of the year were vacant, the company says. “It was unprecedented for me,” said Andrey Ivanenko, Managing Director of Samolet Group.
According to SuperJob President Alexei Zakharov, the pandemic has stimulated the demand for unskilled labor, which has caused wages to rise in some areas of the gig economy. “This is a real war for taxi drivers,” Zakharov said. According to SuperJob, the number of vacancies for couriers in 2021 increased by almost 900 percent.
According to Madina Khrustaleva, an analyst with TS Lombard, the problems will worsen over time. “The country is already facing a shrinking workforce, but there is also a structural problem with a decline in the number of workers under the age of 40. Between the ages of 30 and 40, Russians reach maximum productivity, and their share among workers will decrease by 25 percent by 2030, “the expert said.
At the end of October, the vice -Premier of Russia Tatiana Golikova. She said that in the next ten years, the number of employed citizens will decrease by a million. This trend, according to the Deputy Prime Minister, will lead to an increase in the average age of a employed citizen. The head of the Central Bank Elvira Nabiullina also announced a labor shortage in October. She said that Russia needs an influx of labor migrants to fill new jobs.