Russia has greater shortage of personnel than ministries think

In 2024, both large and small industrial companies in Russia hired 47,000 workers from China, India, Türkiye and other countries for which there are visa requirements for entry.

Source: The Moscow Times

Details: "This means the number of foreigners hired exceeded the initial government quota of 40,500 by 16%. This is according to data from the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection, as reported by [Russian business newspaper] Vedomosti," The Moscow Times states.

Quotas are determined based on market needs and regional applications, and companies must request permission to employ a foreigner under the quota. Attracting workers from abroad is "objectively necessary" if the required personnel cannot be found in Russia, the Russian ministry emphasised.

Foreign specialists such as welders, concrete workers and finishers, as well as employees for the food and agricultural industries, are in high demand among Russian employers.

The shortage of workers in the building, manufacturing and technology sectors is linked to the war in Ukraine and the policy of import substitution. These are sectors where there has been an outflow of personnel to companies in the defence industry.

The building industry remains the sector with the greatest labour shortage, particularly due to the reduction in the number of migrants from visa-free countries. Meanwhile, the implementation of new projects in the mining sector in recent years has involved a significant number of foreign workers in labour-deficient areas, especially in the Far East, according to The Moscow Times.

Background:

• Earlier, Defence Intelligence of Ukraine reported that citizens of Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, as well as other Central Asian countries, who come to Russia to work are increasingly being conscripted to fight against Ukraine.
• At the end of 2023, Ukraine’s National Resistance Center noted that the total number of migrants from Central Asia in the temporarily occupied territories had already exceeded 100,000 people.
• It was also reported earlier that the Russian authorities are increasingly concerned that the "controlled cooling" of the economy, as Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak called it, could become uncontrollable.

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