Expert: mass layoffs are not planned in Russia

Mass layoffs in the Russian labor market are currently not planned. Sofya Donets, Chief Economist for Russia and the CIS at Renaissance Capital, shared this forecast at the conference “Regions of Russia: “new normal” and “industrial renaissance””organized by Kommersant Publishing House.

“There are no crises and big falls without big layoffs. I don’t see any triggers for big layoffs right now. There was a lag between the decisions of foreign companies to leave the market and real layoffs, but, according to our estimates, this period of uncertainty ended mainly in the fall. In various ways, the business was resold or restructured, and the bulk of the companies that left the market had already made some decisions during the autumn and early winter. Then there was a decisive stage and unemployment did not rise,” said Mrs. Donets.

As Rosstat reported earlier, the unemployment rate in Russia in January of this year amounted to 3.6%, updating the historical minimum. In December 2022, this figure was 3.7%. In real terms, wages in Russia as a whole for 2022 decreased by 1%, in December they increased by 0.6% in annual terms.