Vacancy is a weapon of the proletariat – Newspaper Kommersant No. 215 (7416) dated 11/19/2022

Almost two months after the announcement of partial mobilization, many companies in the manufacturing sector are declaring a shortage of blue-collar employees, surveys of recruitment agencies record. Enterprises plan to cope with the increased deficit by attracting older workers, young applicants with no experience, as well as hiring women in traditionally “male” jobs. One-fifth of employers intend to lure workers away from competitors by raising wages – so far in industry they have grown this year only slightly more than the average for the labor market.

Russian manufacturing companies complain about a shortage of staff and increased staff turnover. Such a conclusion can be drawn from the study of the Ventra HR holding (the company previously acquired the Russian subsidiary of the international recruitment agency Kelly Services) “Production personnel market 2022: the view of workers and employers.”

45% of employers surveyed admitted that they faced a shortage of the staff they needed. Almost a quarter of those surveyed (24%) said they see a decrease in the professional level of job seekers. Respondents associated these changes with the impact on the labor market of the partial mobilization carried out. Let us recall that it was announced on September 21 – about 300 thousand mobilized and 80 thousand volunteers went to participate in the military operation in Ukraine, which could not but affect the labor market.

Natalia Danina, Head of Client Efficiency at the hh.ru online recruiting platform, notes that the analysis of vacancies in the industries covered by the Ventra study confirms that enterprises have significantly stepped up recruitment this fall. “Compared to the summer, the number of vacancies increased by 35%, compared to the spring – by 39%. The hiring of directly working and production personnel is the most active – plus 37% of the summer indicators and 42% of the spring indicators, ”said Natalya Danina. The press service of the SuperJob recruitment portal also notes that production personnel are now in short supply – the greatest competition for workers, according to the service, is now in metallurgy, in the radio and electronics industries, in the rocket and space industry and in instrumentation.

Employers are using different strategies to try to solve the talent problem, according to the Ventra survey. 23% of employers are ready to involve older people in production, another 23% plan to consider women more often in traditionally male roles, form “female teams”, 21% expect to automate their production to avoid manual labor. 19% plan to raise wages in order to lure staff from competitors, 8% are going to outsource part of production functions so that third-party providers solve personnel problems, and 4% are going to stop production until better times. As Kommersant was explained in hh.ru, in addition to expanding the hiring of women and older men, there was an increase in job offers for job seekers without experience (plus 43% by summer, 52% by spring). “This may indicate a revival of training and mentoring programs in the workplace,” Natalya Danina emphasized.

The government, as follows from yesterday’s report following the meeting of the interdepartmental working group on the situation on the labor market, is trying to help employers. “Employment centers individually work with manufacturing companies in need of additional employees,” the government press service said, adding that now employers continue to look for employees for almost 2.2 million positions presented on the Jobs of Russia portal.

The data of the study of the Zarplata.ru service also testify to the desire to attract personnel with increased salaries. Its analysts recorded an increase in median wages among blue-collar workers, mostly in traditionally “male” professions. For example, in October, relative to September, the median salaries of welders (+3%), turners (+6%), car washers (+6%), loaders (+10%), machinists (+18%), locksmiths (+23%) increased . In general, as follows from the SuperJob statistics, the annual increase in average market wages in nominal terms, excluding inflation in the industrial sector, was 12% – this indicator was higher only in such areas as information technology (17.2%), construction (14. 5%) and personnel (12.8%). It should be noted that in general, in the labor market of the Russian Federation, as Deputy Minister of Labor Elena Mukhtiyarova said this week, the increase in wages in nominal terms by the end of 2022 is expected to be at the level of 11.6%, which is slightly lower than the rate of inflation.

Anastasia Manuylova