Kommersant learned about the shortage of fitness trainers due to their transition to online

The transition of fitness trainers to online classes that began during the coronavirus pandemic has led to a shortage of instructors in Russian offline clubs, writes “Kommersant”.

According to FitnessData, in 2022, the number of resumes in the fitness services market decreased by 30% with a 19% increase in job openings. In the first two months of this year, the number of vacancies exceeded last year by 14%, while the number of resumes was lower by 3%.

According to HeadHunter data, there are now 903 vacancies for gym instructors in Russia, which is 49% more than a year ago. The fitness industry has fewer than two resumes per job opening, compared with an average of 4.4 for other sectors. Moscow fitness clubs are looking for 334 specialists, which is 29% more year-on-year.

According to the head of FitnessData Maxim Borovikov, the current situation is due to the gradual flow of specialists online, as well as the departure of some instructors from Russia. According to him, 27% of instructors already work on the Internet, another 47% would like to earn money online. The total number of fitness trainers in Russia has decreased over several years by 10,000-15,000 people and has reached 350,000 specialists. The number of fitness bloggers in the country is estimated at 39,000 people, and their average audience is 2,500 people.

As Olga Kiseleva, president of the Association of Fitness Industry Operators, told the publication, the shortage of personnel has led to the fact that it slows down the recovery of the industry after the pandemic. In the XFIT network, they are trying to compensate for the shortage of personnel through automated studios that operate without instructors, said its CEO Irina Tumanova.

Despite the shortage of staff and more favorable working conditions that some clubs offer coaches, the income of instructors remains low. According to analysts, their average monthly income is an average of 73,000 rubles in the country, in Moscow – 84,100 rubles.

How wrote Earlier than Vedomosti, the involvement of the Russian population in sports and physical education is growing, and the main trend of recent years has been the popularity of self-training (74% of those involved in sports do it on their own), street (40%) and home (48%) activities. This sets a long-term request for the development of fitness applications, online individual and group formats, for an adapted urban environment for sports, said Maria Makusheva, director of development of the research direction of the Platforma CSP.