Labor market and youngsters: who will hire a university graduate?

IRINA MISHINA

Demographic pit and personnel hunger for young people

Gone are the days when students were subjected to distribution after graduation. As you know, in the USSR, after graduating from the institute, his graduate was immediately employed, and he had to work in his specialty for several years. Today, having defended their diploma and graduated from university, young people find work for themselves. The question of how to succeed and not lose is now worrying millions of young people.

On the one hand, young people are expected in the labor market. In 2022, the number of employees under the age of 35 decreased by 1.3 million people, according to Rosstat data. The biggest deficit is in the age group from 25 to 29 years. The reasons are emigration and the demographic factor: in the 90s, few gave birth, a «demographic pit» was formed.

«The trend of reducing the number of young people in the labor market was fully marked at the turn of 2020 and 2021, which was almost instantly expressed in the shortage and difficulties of hiring staff in most business sectors. Even then there was a well-defined forecast based on the analysis of birth statistics of the 90s — early 00s: in the next decade we will only see a reduction in the presence of young people in the labor market», — the chief expert on the labor market, head of client efficiency hh.ru Natalia Danina explained NI.

Despite the personnel hunger for young people, employers are in no hurry to pay large salaries to novice specialists. According to the analytical service of the audit and consulting network FinExpertiza based on Rosstat data, in 2021 the average salary of 30-year-old Russians employed at large and medium-sized enterprises averaged 57.5 thousand rubles. Earnings of 20-year-olds were a quarter less — about 42 thousand rubles.

Who are employers looking for?

«It's too late to start looking for a job after getting a diploma. Priority is given to those who have completed an internship, worked in project teams with a certain employer», — says Irina Abankina, professor at the HSE Institute of Education. — Today, all IT specialists, doctors, pharmacists, teachers are in demand. IT specialists are needed for communication technologies, there is a specialist in webinars and video conferences in any office today».

However, employers express different points of view: yes, IT specialists are in demand, but with a fairly high level of skills. As we were informed in the HH recruitment service.EN, there is a shortage of personnel in the IT industry, but we are talking about middle and senior specialists, but the «Junior» level, without a certain experience, is more than enough.

«There are not enough specialists in medicine, both doctors and average medical staff, there is a shortage of personnel in pharmacology, teachers are urgently needed. Now a new requirement in schools is to study at least 2 subjects at an advanced level, since September drawing and labor education have been introduced — in general, the shortage of teaching staff is already obvious», — says Irina Abankina, professor at the HSE Institute for the Development of Education.

In the job selection service HH.EN we were informed about the shortage of personnel primarily for working specialties.

«Today on hh.ru in In Russia, 37% of the total number of vacancies are open to blue-collar workers. In the first months of 2023, more than half a million vacancies were placed directly for working personnel across the country, which is 19% higher than in the same period of 2022. At the same time, in May 2023, the number of vacancies for workers reached record levels — 226.5 thousand. In addition, today the most acute shortage of personnel is observed in medicine and pharmaceuticals, retail trade, workers and production personnel, agriculture — according to hh.ru in these areas, there are less than three resumes of applicants per vacancy», — Natalia Danina, chief expert on the labor market, head of the Client efficiency department, explained to NI hh.ru.

Also on the service hh.ru we have found the specialties for which employees are required right now. They are a programmer, a virtual reality designer, a designer, a gallery owner, a mobile developer, a digital specialist, an environmental engineer.

There is less need for psychologists, economists and philologists now. However, representatives of humanitarian specialties should not despair, they are offered jobs in creative sectors, in schools and universities, in public projects where young people are involved. Also, against the background of a surge of interest in neural networks like ChatGPT, there is now a request for industrial engineers — linguists, philologists who could work with neural networks that generate text, music and images.

Well, what about the engineering personnel, whose training is now being emphasized?

«Engineers are in demand in the segment of enterprises with state participation and in the military-industrial complex. The defense industry is in dire need of graduates with in-depth knowledge. Engineers are needed in transport, in the energy sector — wherever there were a lot of borrowed technologies and where import substitution is now taking place», — said Irina Abankina, a professor at the HSE.

Can I not show my diploma?

Recently, an interesting trend has been taking place in the labor market: employers have stopped demanding a university diploma, skills, experience and portfolio are important to them. According to recruitment agencies, today almost 60% of employers, when publishing a vacancy, do not indicate education as a requirement for an applicant at all. At the same time, a third of employers are still trying to get specialists with a university diploma. So a diploma is always useful if we are talking about such areas as science, education, personnel management, banking, medicine. In order to hold senior positions, again, a diploma of higher education is required.

«The demand for higher education remains in professions and specializations with increased social responsibility. First of all, we are talking about doctors, engineers, lawyers, architects, etc. At the beginning of 2023 on hh.ru almost every fourth open vacancy in In Russia, the employer indicates a mandatory requirement for a potential employee to have a higher education, in 10% there is a requirement for secondary special education. But the majority of vacancies, 66%, do not contain any requirements for the level of education. There are no regional or industry specifics in this distribution, it all depends on the specific profession and the level of the position», — Natalia Danina, chief expert on the labor market, head of the Client efficiency department, explained to NI hh.ru .

By the way, labor market experts pay attention to the increased competition for university graduates from college graduates: the latter have lower salary expectations, a shorter preparation period for entering the labor market and a more specific specialty.