The pandemic has sharply raised the demand for unskilled labor, the structure of this market will continue to change. This opinion in a conversation with the correspondent. TASS was expressed by the founder and president of the SuperJob job search service Alexey Zakharov.
“The labor market this year itself returned to the indicators of 2019, which is unexpected for everyone. The pandemic has sharply raised the demand for unskilled labor, and the structure of this market continues to change dramatically. But in fact, we are still at the very beginning of changes and there are a lot of them. For example, companies are trying to get people back to their offices. And according to our surveys, employees managed to get used to it and under no circumstances want to return: in the first week after the lockdown was introduced, almost 70% dreamed of returning to the office, and in early February 2021 – only 30%, ”Zakharov told TASS.
At the same time, according to him, the country has a fairly high unemployment and a great demand for personnel, including unskilled ones. He noted that supply and demand differ by region, season and many other factors, for example, there are regions with a high unemployment rate of 30-50%, such as Dagestan and Chechnya. The situation is better in the megalopolises of central Russia and cities with a population of one million. However, in depressed regions, unemployment is total – everyone who wanted to work has already left there.
“According to SuperJob, 35-36% of real unemployed looking for work are registered as unemployed. There are various reasons for this. Qualified specialists find work quickly enough and never register at all. The unskilled are divided into two categories: total unemployed, registering and receiving unemployment benefits, and the second category – finding jobs, working for a short time and quitting, ”the expert added.
The current situation on the labor market
At the same time, service analysts note that in the last week of May 2021, the recruiting activity of employers in the labor market is 21% higher than the same indicators of the “dock period” of 2017-2019. The decrease in activity in the areas of activity affected by the pandemic (tourism, art, culture, entertainment) is compensated by an increase in recruiting activity in such areas as construction, medicine, manufacturing, delivery services, and the IT sphere.
По данным Superjob, из-за снижения мигрантов на рынке труда в РФ произошли изменения в отраслях, где использовался их труд. «Уменьшение числа трудовых мигрантов привело к изменениям в сферах, где традиционно использовался их труд. Наблюдается конкуренция сфер строительства и производства за квалифицированных рабочих. В общепите вакансий сейчас больше, чем в апреле 2019 г. Соискателей же за год в сегменте рынка труда «Туризм, гостиницы, общественное питание» в целом стало меньше на 10%. За время пандемии россияне, работавшие в пострадавших отраслях экономики, переквалифицировались и перешли в другие сферы деятельности», – рассказали в сервисе.
Also, after the pandemic year, the demand for courier services in megacities has grown several times and continues to be at a high level. The situation is similar with driver services: the growing delivery and domestic trucking services are short of drivers.
In addition, according to analysts, 2020 has revealed problems in the field of medicine. Now there is an obvious shortage of higher, middle and junior medical personnel, a high turnover of personnel, especially in the primary care, which is most in contact with the coronavirus.
Earlier in an interview with TASS, the head of the Ministry of Labor Anton Kotyakov noted that the labor market in Russia will be fully restored to pre-crisis levels by the end of this year. According to him, the total unemployment in the country is now holding at 5.2%, by the end of 2021 it will drop to 4.6-4.7% (the pre-crisis indicator of 2019).
