A turner gets 100 000 rubles, an engineer gets 30 000 rubles: how Special military operation reshaped the labor market and salaries

Yekaterina Maximova

"According to surveys of businesses, primarily manufacturing, there is a large-scale shortage of technical professions. This problem is becoming one of the main ones in the context of converting the economy from raw materials into a diversified and technological one", - the executive director warns  Institute of Growth Economics named after Stolypina Anton Sviridenko.

Analysts of the rating agency "Expert RA" see the situation as follows: "The main obstacle to the growth of the industry is likely to be a shortage of personnel.

According to a survey conducted by the INP RAS at the end of 2022, 55% of companies feel a shortage of quality labor, and it is he who creates the greatest difficulties for Russian enterprises. The surveyed enterprises report both a shortage of highly qualified personnel and engineering and technical workers, and a shortage of low-skilled workers".

The labor market has already reacted to this message. According to hh.ru in 2022, employers associated with the production sector published more than 650 thousand vacancies. And more than a third (33%) of them were placed in the fourth quarter of last year. The TOP 5 regions where the "labor man" was most actively searched for included Moscow, St. Petersburg, the Moscow Region, the Sverdlovsk Region and the Republic of Tatarstan.

The most valuable personnel being chased by production workers are technologist, design engineer/mechanical engineer, service engineer, welder, CNC operator, turner, milling machine operator, grinder, handyman, electrician, etc. The share of only the listed positions collectively accounts for 21% of vacancies from the total volume in production, Novye Izvestia calculated. And the demand directly for turners and milling machines in Russia increased by 51%. 

Experts hh.ru It is clarified that out of the TOP 20 professions in the ranking of demand among manufacturing companies, 11 belong to the working sphere. And the most scarce personnel were a mechanic, machinist, adjuster, locksmith, production line operator. Here, the response to a vacancy is less than 1-2 people per workplace. 

The defense industry is looking for talents 

If we compare the annual analytics hh.ru It turns out that despite the boom in vacancies in the field of "production", the annual dynamics in Russia as a whole turned out to be negative (-3%).

Statistics with a minus sign in 2022 were shown by all federal districts. The only exception was the Ural District (+12% in 2022 and +4% in February 2023). The Sverdlovsk region "shot" there (+18%), stuffed with enterprises of the military-industrial complex (more than 30 defense-related factories). 

The number of manufacturing vacancies has generally decreased in the Central Federal District, where about 40% of the defense industry is concentrated. But at the same time, the regions themselves show different results. For example, the Bryansk region, where both the defense industry and mechanical engineering are represented, showed a 12% increase in vacancies. And the Udmurt region with its weapons capital Izhevsk has grown production vacancies by 2%. 

In general, Special military operation noticeably reshaped the labor market. And as the journal journal.zarplata.ru , since September last year, the number of vacancies in the defense industry itself has increased by 48%.  

Novye Izvestia in the article "Old men are going into battle: The country's defense plants cannot recruit workers", with reference to Leonid Shalimov, the developer of the Soyuz-2 launch vehicle control system, and Vladimir Roshchupkin, the executive director of Uralvagonzavod, reported that defense enterprises were left without personnel.  And when, due to a special military operation, the factories switched to work in three shifts, it turned out that there was an overabundance of "white collar workers" in the country and a catastrophic shortage of people able to stand up to the machine. 

Wages are growing, but slowly 

Employers reacted to the shortage of personnel by raising wages.

As analysts note hh.ru since the beginning of 2022, wages in the Russian manufacturing sector have increased by 17%.  In some regions, the growth exceeded 30% (Pskov region +38%, Arkhangelsk region +40%).

The median salary offered in vacancies in the manufacturing sector today is 70 thousand rubles. 

According to the version "Work.ru", the highest paid working professions were welder and electrician. Some employers are willing to pay them from 250 to 300 thousand rubles. So, a welder in production in Novokuibyshevsk was searched for 300 thousand rubles.  

But these are rather exceptions and piece-by-piece offers. Novye Izvestia flipped through vacancies for scarce specialists at various sites.  

So, for universal turners in the North-Western District, employers are ready to pay from 80 to 120 thousand rubles. In Moscow from 90 -145 thousand rubles and above. In Yekaterinburg, universal turners are recruited for 70-110 thousand rubles.

Vacancies "turner" are open in the Northwestern Federal District with a salary of 70-80 thousand rubles. In the Central Federal District, turning labor costs a little more - from 90 to 120 thousand rubles. Directly in Kaluga, a turner can receive 60-80 thousand rubles, in Tula - from 70 thousand rubles. 

Employers offer welders salaries from 60 to 100 thousand rubles, argon workers - 120 thousand rubles.  Deficient electricians can start looking for a job from a position of 65-90 thousand rubles and above. 

But the work of an engineer, judging by the data of the Federal Personnel Center of the Defense Industry, is now valued less. For example, the Kalashnikov Concern is looking for design engineers with a salary level of 34 thousand rubles. Izhevsk electromechanical plant "Dome" requires a design engineer of the first category, who will be ready to work for 36 thousand 225 rubles per month. On average, a design engineer in the country today can claim a salary of 70 to 150 thousand rubles. Piece offers, for the most valuable engineering personnel, can start from the position of 250-300 thousand rubles. 

"When the economy is not doing very well, wages should not grow. But not in our case. The paradox of the modern labor market is that against the background of the economic crisis, employers are raising salaries to employees. According to the Payroll Data Bank, the total income of employees increased by 6.4%. This is the highest figure in the last three years, although it is, of course, not comparable with current inflation. Apparently, the general shortage of people in the labor market is affecting, and companies are trying to raise wages. Of course, this increase had little effect on purchasing power — we can buy fewer goods with current money than at the beginning of the year. But the positive dynamics in itself is already a good sign", - the chief expert notes hh.ru on the labor market, Natalia Danina, Head of Client Efficiency. 

Yekaterina Sorokina, HR Director of Technonicol, emphasizes that Russian companies that have embarked on import substitution need "techies" and people who can work with their hands. "Until recently, the popularity of these specialties was low, school graduates did not want to work in factories, and now there are few qualified specialists", - Sorokina says. She predicts that the deficit will continue in 2023, as well as the fierce competition of employers for candidates.