Lack of workers gave them confidence

The shortage of personnel, which increased due to partial mobilization, gave workers additional confidence in the prospects for their employment in the Russian labor market. Such a conclusion can be drawn from a survey by the NAFI analytical center, in which 1.5 thousand Russians took part.

The vast majority of respondents (90%) in October were confident that they would not lose their jobs in the next month. In summer, the proportion of respondents with such confidence was lower and fluctuated around the 85–87% mark. This was probably caused by the withdrawal of a number of Western companies from the Russian Federation and the uncertain prospects for the purchase of their business by Russian entrepreneurs. But already in September, the share of respondents who assess the situation on the Russian labor market as positive for workers increased by 3 percentage points (p.p.). The share of employees who believe that they may lose their jobs in the near future decreased by 2 percentage points and amounted to 6%.

Among those confident in the stability of their work, there are more people with a high level of income (53% in this group versus 32% in the group of middle-income people). The surprise of the survey results was that women assess their job prospects better than men (41% are confident in maintaining a job versus 31%). This probably reflects the increased interest of employers in applicants who can become an alternative to middle-aged men subject to mobilization (for more details, see Kommersant of November 19).

It should be noted that, according to the NAFI survey, at the same time, the proportion of respondents who believe that in the event of the loss of their current job, one way or another, they will find a new job with the same or higher wages, has significantly decreased. If in September this was stated by 58% of respondents, then in October their share fell to 51%. At the same time, in October, the share of those who believe that a new job can be found with great difficulty or it will not be possible to find it at all, amounted to 43%. Compared to May-September, the share of such respondents increased by 6 percentage points, and relative to March – by 2 percentage points. At the same time, middle-aged Russians are the least optimistic about their prospects for finding a new job in the event of losing an existing one.

Anastasia Manuylova