Builders were called to the road – Kommersant

The rapid pace of the development of budgetary funds for the construction of road infrastructure has almost tripled the demand of Russian companies for builders, engineers and blue-collar workers. The active search for such specialists is due, among other things, to the shortage of applicants, which increased after partial mobilization last fall, experts say. So far, even rising salaries in the industry have not helped companies attract additional labor.

In April of this year, the demand of companies for builders increased by 2.8 times year on year, Avito Rabota calculated. They note that road workers and engineers are now required 2.2 times more often, bulldozer drivers – 2.4 times more often. Demand for tractor drivers increased by 86%. The reason for this, according to the coordinator of “Business Russia” for the North-Western Federal District Dmitry Panov, is the launch of large projects for the construction of road infrastructure.

Development Director of Avito Rabota Dmitry Puchkov recalls that the total level of state funding for road activities in 2023–2027 will amount to 13.2 trillion rubles. Therefore, he adds, there is now a growing demand not only for experienced engineers, designers, operators and other road infrastructure builders, but also for inexperienced road workers.

The most significant increase in the number of vacancies for engineers is observed in Kazan and Ufa – more than four times, specified in Avito Rabota. These cities will be involved in the construction of roads from the comprehensive plan for the modernization and expansion of the main infrastructure approved by the federal authorities, in particular, the Kazan-Yekaterinburg highway and the M-12 Moscow-Nizhny Novgorod-Kazan highway.

The growth in demand for specialists may also be due to an increase in budget funds for a number of road projects this year, according to Sherpa Group. Thus, the authorities revised the financing of the construction of roads of the Europe-Western China transport corridor. As part of this project, it is planned to spend 44.1 billion rubles this year, which is 30 billion rubles. more than a year earlier.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, the authorities have begun to direct more funds to road construction. For example, federal spending on the Safe High-Quality Roads national project increases not only with the adoption of the next budget, but also consistently increases throughout the year itself, explains Alexandra Galaktionova, CEO of Sherpa Group. According to her, in January-March 2023 alone, 57.3 billion rubles were disbursed under this project, which is a third more year-on-year.

The increased interest in construction specialists is explained not only by an increase in demand for labor, but also by a decrease in supply in the labor market, says Alexandra Galaktionova. The shortage of qualified workers in the construction industry has been observed for more than a year, says Tatyana Dolyakova, general director of the ProPersonal recruitment agency. Previously, the outflow was associated with lower wages in construction, which forced specialists to leave, for example, in the extractive industries, Ms. Galaktionova adds. According to her, this process did not stop, even despite the growth of the average salary in the construction industry.

According to Avito Rabota, the increase in wages for engineers in the country in April amounted to 16% year-on-year, up to 61 thousand rubles. per month. This is higher than the inflation rate, which reached 12% from April 2022 to April 2023, according to Rosstat data. In conditions when state contractors need to ensure the staffing of their contractual obligations as soon as possible, they are ready to offer relatively high salaries for skilled workers and engineering specialists, says Dmitry Panov.

In the second half of 2022, partial mobilization became an additional factor in increasing the deficit, says Alexandra Galaktionova. Considering the outflow of specialists, especially engineers, the shortage of personnel will only increase in the next few years, predicts Khusein Pliyev, CEO of Smart Engineers Group of Companies. This, in his opinion, should spur an increase in real wages.

Daria Andrianova