“The Record-breaking Labor Shortage in Russian Industrial Enterprises: Causes and Consequences”

“The hunger for employees broke another record: in April, 35 percent of Russian industrial enterprises reported a lack of workers,” the agency quotes RBK Sergej Cuchlo, head of the current IEP research department.

The institute has been conducting a survey among the heads of thousands of industrial enterprises since 1992 according to the standardized methodology of the European Union and the OECD, which enables it to compare data with foreign countries, the agency noted.

Since the beginning of the fighting in Ukraine, the lack of specialists, especially in light industry – along with uncertainty, a weak ruble and reduced demand – is one of the key factors that do not allow the growth of the industry to start, Cuchlo said at an economic conference organized by the Financial University under the Russian government.

“Staff is a serious and long-term problem. Human resources cannot be acquired in half a year,” he stated.

According to the IEP survey, the situation is “absolutely the worst since 1996,” the economist said. Businesses “literally scream” that there is a lack of specialized schools where specialists with the necessary qualifications could be educated.

“The (Russian) market relaxed fantastically after the start of the sanctions war, not only expensive brands left it, but also those oriented towards the mass consumer. They could be replaced by the production of Russian light industry, but there is no one to produce the goods,” Cuchlo pointed out.

According to him, the “special military operation” (as the armed aggression in Ukraine is called in Russia) and the Western sanctions did not defeat the Russian industry.

“Nothing comparable to what the industry experienced in 2020, 2008, 1998 and 1994,” he said, referring to the readings of the industrial sector optimism index.

A Russian newspaper also wrote about the unprecedented labor shortage in Russia Delovoi Petersburg citing a survey by the Russian Central Bank.

Data for the first quarter of this year show a record shortage of workers over the past quarter of a century (since the survey began in 1998) in all sectors. The worst situation is in the machining industry, in water management or in transport.

According to a Russian weekly Profile “the (Russian) labor market lost 770 to 820 thousand people in 2022 as a result of mobilization and emigration”.

Given that the number of working-age population was 83.2 million at the beginning of last year, according to data from the Russian statistical office Rosstat, one percent of the working-age population was therefore missing from the labor market, Profil calculated.