At the beginning of autumn 2021, there is a shortage of workers in the Russian industry. This conclusion was made by experts of the Institute of Economic Policy (IEP), after interviewing the heads of industrial companies. Problems with hiring staff in this sector arose in the second quarter. According to the balance of assessments (the answers are “more than enough” employees minus “less than enough”), enterprises have not experienced such a significant shortage of personnel for more than ten years-since July 2008. In July—August, the number of employees was partially restored — the balance of estimates of the number of employees at enterprises increased to plus 6 points after zero at the beginning of the year. However, it still lags behind the planned hiring volumes (plus 10-13 points).The main reason why enterprises lose employees is the retirement of the latter — almost 50% of the surveyed managers complained about this. It is true that those employed in industry are mostly older, but in the last ten years their retirement has been showing its peaks and falls, rather than increasing linearly. Thus, the first peak of complaints about such a reason for leaving occurred in 2013, the second-in 2018, after which the share of this factor gradually decreased.The second place among the reasons for dismissal is low wages, but the mention of this factor is at a historical minimum for the second time after 2017, when the industry was coming out of the stagnation of 2012-2016. But the share of dismissals due to difficult working conditions was at a historical maximum. According to IEP experts, this is due to the active development of new sectors in the service sector and, accordingly, the appearance of new, more attractive vacancies on the labor market.It should be noted that the hiring of employees in the last few months has become more complicated not only in other sectors of the Russian economy, but also in other countries. Thus, a PwC study showed that the majority of employees (65%) of the largest US companies are looking for a new job, and 88% of managers noted an increase in staff turnover. As a result, the main task of enterprises becomes their retention, and in the case when this is impossible, it is to reduce the dependence between the quality of the work performed by the employee and his experience in the organization.Anastasia Manuylova
