The rise in wages in Russia is bringing a new mobilization closer

The growth of salaries in the civilian sector of the economy and the shortage of personnel are bringing Russia closer to a new mobilization, writes Bloomberg.

Salaries of engineers, mechanics, machine operators, electricians, welders, drivers and couriers increased by 8-20% last year, the agency notes. So, truck drivers can count on a salary of up to three thousand dollars a month (about 270 thousand rubles), body repair specialists – two thousand dollars a month. In these conditions, the compensation of a participant in the war stopped looking so big, Bloomberg emphasizes.

Competition between enterprises and a huge shortage of personnel are superimposed on this. “There has never been such a shortage of personnel,” a source in a large raw material company told the agency.

According to Superjob data, 85% of Russian companies lack employees, 93% refused to be laid off, and the number of vacancies in 2023 increased by 1.5 times. According to a recent survey by the Gaidar Institute, 47% of industrial enterprises are experiencing a shortage of workers – this is the absolute maximum since 1996.

Among the negative factors of the labor market are the consequences of the flight of qualified specialists due to the wave of partial mobilization in September 2022 and the departure of migrants from the CIS countries due to inflation and a weakened ruble.

“Russia’s strategy to attract contractors with huge payments and bonuses was designed for a short conflict,” says Bloomberg Russia economist Alexander Isakov. decrease in the inflow of contract workers and new partial mobilization”, – he believes.

• In the fall of 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the so-called partial mobilization for war with Ukraine. According to official data, about 300 thousand people were drafted. The decree on mobilization is still in effect.
• In December 2023, Putin declared that there was no need to conduct a second wave of mobilization. According to him, there are 244 thousand mobilized in the combat zone. Putin asserts that the flow of volunteers and contractors willing to take part in the invasion of Ukraine is not decreasing. Then, for the first time since the beginning of the full-scale war in Ukraine, the Ministry of Defense of Russia named the number of people serving in the army under contract – more than 640 thousand people.