Relocants are returning and adapting – Kommersant FM

Relocants will face a difficult adaptation to the Russian labor market. Recruiters told Kommersant FM that a significant portion of citizens return to Russia in search of new career prospects. By some estimates, about a quarter. There is indeed a labor shortage in the Russian market and rising wages, but finding a job for a relocant can be difficult, Kommersant FM’s interlocutors say. Why? Ivan Yakunin will tell you.

A fresh study was published by the hh.ru service. Analysts looked at how many people changed their place of residence on their resumes during 2022, and how many then changed it back. As of October, this figure was 26%. Among the most popular destinations for their relocation are Kazakhstan, Georgia, Turkey, Uzbekistan and Armenia. Now they are returning to Russia, and there are several reasons for this, says the author of the study, chief labor market expert at hh.ru Natalya Danina:

“These include difficulties with legalization in those countries where people have left due to a combination of factors, and changes in exchange rates. In addition, relocants are not always able to find work in the country where they moved. Certain verbal, let’s say, interventions to the effect that there would be no new rounds of mobilization also had an effect.”

Since 2022, Russia has had record low unemployment – less than 3%. Because of this, as the authorities warned, employers would lure employees away from each other with the help of high salaries. According to Rosstat, Russians’ earnings have already increased by almost 10% since the beginning of the year. In such a situation, the employer is ready to hire any specialist, says Natalya Golovanova, head of the Superjob research center:

“Employers will formally treat such candidates because they need personnel. The number of vacancies has increased by a third over the year, but there has been virtually no increase in resumes. If previously only the IT industry showed large indicators of wage growth, then this year everything has become equal – production, industry, construction, and so on are already showing the same growth. And I must say that now people are not very actively ready to change jobs, because they understand that the situation is on their side, and employers are forced to motivate with rubles.

However, it is too early to talk about the widespread nature of the trend. hh.ru adds that if a quarter returns, then more still leave. Russian President Vladimir Putin, of course, said back in the summer that half had returned, but independent estimates are more modest. The European University Institute – and there is one – through a survey revealed a share of 15%. Respondents most often referred to the fact that the standard of living in emigration had fallen. Finding a well-paid job in your homeland now will also not be easy, Anna Alfimova, Managing Partner of Alena Vladimirskaya’s Career Laboratory, is sure:

“If this is, for example, marketing, and it is important to understand local trends in order to properly build product penetration, then, of course, the absence of a person in the local market for more than six months is already a serious limitation. It was very cool five to seven years ago when a candidate had international experience and then returned with new practices.

Now there is no such request, because we are still in a state of strict optimization. Therefore, compared to other candidates who have been in Russia all this time, people who returned after a year of absence will, of course, lose. For some companies, also due to personal beliefs associated with political overtones, we also see this.”

Vladimir Putin, answering a question about the return of relocants, recalled that “we have a free country, a person has the right to choose his place of residence,” and he does not see anything immoral in this. State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin proposed checking what statements the relocants made abroad and, upon returning, bringing them to justice under the article “Treason.”

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