Employers named the main reasons for the difficulties in filling vacancies in the labor market

One of the main reasons for the difficulties in filling vacancies in the Russian labor market is non-competitive salaries. Employers themselves stated this during the hh.ru survey. According to them, among the internal causes of problems with hiring are the weak development of company brands, excessive requirements for applicants and unattractive working conditions. Only 22% of employers are sure that the shortage of workers is caused solely by external factors (geopolitics, lack of specialists with the necessary skills and the demographic situation).

Almost 500 representatives of Russian companies took part in the survey of the recruiting platform hh.ru, occupying the positions of CEOs (every tenth respondent), HR directors (38%), recruitment managers (25%), heads of company divisions (20%). Third-party recruiters also participated in the study (2%).

As follows from its results, two-thirds (65%) of respondents consider the current shortage of personnel to be a fundamental problem in the labor market, which leads to an increase in the cost of the labor resource and the need for rational work with it. The shortage of workers is felt most acutely by companies in the construction and retail sectors (78% each who absolutely agree with the existence of such problems), as well as representatives of heavy industry (69%). In the extractive sector and business services, this share is slightly above 60%. In the IT sector, those who absolutely agree with the presence of a problem are noticeably less – 47%.

Only 22% of respondents stated that they consider the shortage of personnel at their enterprises to be exclusively external factors: geopolitical tension (in general, 64% in this group noted it, representatives of IT, retail and production more often than others), lack of specialists with the required skills ( 55%; extraction of raw materials, construction and finance), the demographic situation (54%; retail and finance).

Of the internal reasons for poor job occupancy, employers first of all named the non-competitive level of wages for their vacancies (44%). At the same time, as Natalia Danina, the chief expert of hh.ru on the labor market, notes, the median level of the proposed salary in the country as a whole for all specializations in July increased by 26% compared to the beginning of the year, to 58.3 thousand rubles. Expectations for the level of salaries of the applicants themselves increased by only 2%, to 57.4 thousand rubles.

In second place in the list of internal reasons for poor vacancy filling is insufficient or no development of the company’s brand (33% of respondents), in third place are excessive requirements for the candidate (27%). Also in the top 5 factors that complicate hiring, respondents included difficult or unattractive working conditions (25%), the unattractiveness of the company’s business sector as a whole (18%).

According to the Center for Business Research at the Higher School of Economics, only representatives of a low-tech group of industrial enterprises (metallurgy, production of coke and oil products, production of rubber and plastic products) can now fulfill their employment plans. Companies from mid- and high-tech industries are already finding it hard to hire new employees. For example, manufacturers of machinery and equipment turned out to be outsiders in terms of the level of implementation of their personnel expectations.

Igor Polevoy from TsMASF notes that although the number of employed in the Russian Federation has increased over the past six months, the number of those who work in large and medium-sized enterprises has remained virtually unchanged (43.8 million people). “It can be assumed that the entire increase in the number of workers came from retail, self-employment and the informal sector, that is, the industry is really losing in the competition for labor,” the expert says.

Anastasia Manuylova