Izvestia, citing the author of the research, Nikolai Akhapkin, said that labour shortages had sharply increased in 2022 and 2023. It said that drivers and shop workers were in particularly high demand.
According to official data, cited by the newspaper, the number of vacancies in the total workforce rose to 6.8 per cent by the middle of 2023, up from 5.8 per cent a year earlier.
“If we extend the data presented by Rosstat (the official statistics agency) to the entire workforce, the shortage of workers in 2023 will tentatively amount to 4.8 million people,” the newspaper cited the new research as saying.
It noted that Labour Minister Anton Kotyakov had said that workforce shortages were felt hard in the manufacturing, construction and transportation sectors, forcing companies to raise wages to try to attract more employees.
The newspaper cited Tatyana Zakharova of Russia’s University of Economics named after G.V. Plekhanov as saying that the labour shortages would probably persist next year, as vacancies for factory workers, engineers, doctors, teachers and other professions would be especially hard to fill.
She cited poor demographics and “the migration of the population” as among the reasons for the labour shortages.
Source: CNA
