The Ministry of Labor of Russia proposed to expand the list of professions for alternative service

The Ministry of Labor of Russia proposed to expand the list of professions that can be engaged in alternative civil service. Conscripts in the army who do not want to take up arms due to conviction or religion have the right to apply for it.

From the autumn draft of 2024, the ministry proposes to allow alternative service in 224 professions instead of 149, reports TASS. Among the proposed ones, conscripts will be allowed to choose jobs as excavators and bulldozers, tool fitters, heating and ventilation equipment repairmen, sailors and ship cooks, lumberjacks, museum curators, and restorers of wooden architecture. Some of the listed professions require higher education. The proposal is not published on the website of the ministry.

The list of professions for alternative service is compiled at the beginning of each year based on requests from ministries and regional authorities. After the expansion, it is expected that 1,305 enterprises will be able to serve. The expansion of the list was made against the background of an acute labor shortage in Russia.

According to experts’ estimates, the number of open vacancies in the country in 2023 has grown, according to various estimates, from 1.8 million to 4.5 million. In November, Rosstat reported a historic minimum unemployment rate of 2.9 percent.

The Central Bank notes that the shortage of personnel limits the possibilities of economic growth. In the October report of the regulator, it was said that the security of employees of Russian factories is now the lowest since the beginning of 2020. Most of all, there is a shortage of workers in production and agriculture.

This is largely caused by the invasion of Ukraine: mass recruitment of contractors, mobilization, the death of potential workers at the front, the flight of qualified specialists from the country and the reduction of migration due to sanctions.