Factories lure workers with IT salaries, but there are no takers

Yekaterina Maximova

Here are just some of the loud statements from suddenly enlightened officials. According to the assessment of the Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Tatiana Golikova, there are 10 vacancies per one applicant in the production sector. What Ms. Golikova said the day before during the next stage of the All-Russian Employment Fair «Work of Russia». In the «Work of Russia» database, the number of vacancies that a «person of labor» could respond to increased by almost 13% (there are more than 660 thousand vacancies in the industrial and manufacturing sector).

The trend is also confirmed by Avito analysts.Work: the industry sector shows a significant increase in the growth of job offers.

According to the Internet service, the number of vacancies increased by 172% this month compared to the same period last year. The demand for such personnel as crane operators, millers, turners, locksmiths, welders has increased several times (three, somewhere and five times)… The number of vacancies for engineers has also increased significantly (by 2.5 times).

«The industrial sector in 2023 showed a significant increase in activity in the context of the labor market. June of this year confirms the trend and demonstrates a noticeable positive dynamics of job-seeking activity and employers' demand. This is due to the expansion of existing production capacities in the country and the opening of new enterprises throughout the year. This is also due to the revival of the construction industry in the summer», — commented Artem Kumpel, Managing Director of Avito Works.

Hello, we are looking for workers

Political scientist, director of the Institute of Regional Problems Dmitry Zhuravlev recalls that «skilled workers do not start on their own».

«In order for them to appear, they should not just be taught. They need to be given a perspective, that is, to learn and give a guarantee that they will get a job. And for many years we have not taught, and, moreover, we have not given such guarantees. Therefore, people simply did not go into this sphere. It takes a long time to study, the work is quite difficult, and there are few guarantees that you will get into the specialty. — says Zhuravlev. — The older generation eventually died out like mammoths. In the distant 90s, there was an overabundance of industrial engineers and Soviet workers. Industry had fallen, and people were still alive. And now they are extinct. The youngest of that generation is now over 80».

When hundreds of thousands of vacancies remain open, employers have to lure staff with rubles.

According to Avito, the average income in the country, which can be claimed by industry specialists in June 2023, is 50,543 rubles per month, but peak values can reach 400,000 rubles.

And according to the level of salaries offered, hard workers now often overtake even IT specialists. It follows from the review of the Ministry of Labor that, for example, vacancies with a salary level of over 200 thousand rubles in the whole country are now almost four times more than similar offers for IT specialists (more than 700 against 110). Yes, and call signs from manufacturing employers with a proposed salary at the level of 100-150 thousand rubles in excess.

There are only vacancies for turners with incomes up to 120-150 thousand rubles most in the Tula, Arkhangelsk, Sverdlovsk, Moscow regions, St. Petersburg, Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug.

For example, in the military-industrial Sverdlovsk region on the days of the All-Russian fair «Work of Russia», large employers were looking for specialists with salaries from 100-150 thousand rubles and above.

So, the Ural Civil Aviation Plant is looking for operators of CNC machines, offering a salary of up to 150 thousand rubles. The Ural Turbine Plant is ready to pay the same amount to the turner. Uralvagonzavod, where, as reported by Novye Izvestia, there is a serious personnel shortage, is now looking for welders with a salary of up to 135 thousand rubles.

With a salary of up to 100 thousand rubles, Ural factories are looking for everything, but they cannot find operators of CNC machines, turners, tooth cutters, electric welders (3-6 grades), process engineers and other techies.

In the «armory» of the Tula region, production managers are ready to offer a job with a salary of 80 to 100 thousand rubles, the head of the tool shop — from 110 to 130 thousand rubles.

And while the statistical «battle» is not in favor of employers. According to hh.ru, the all-Russian dynamics of vacancies in the «working staff» section amounted to +2% only to the previous month. And the dynamics of the resume in the same section turned out to be negative (-12%). In general, the top areas with the highest vacancy rate include manufacturing, workforce, sales, retail, construction, transport and logistics.

Mammoths are extinct, what's next?

Dmitry Zhuravlev states: the country was many years late with the training of specialized personnel.

«But you still have to do it. Only it is necessary to tie it all: colleges, technical schools, universities should not be disconnected from production. These are specialists, piece-by-piece people. People will not study for five years (and technical education is much more expensive at cost than humanitarian education), not knowing that they will then get a job. Only with a bundle — school, college, university, place of work — it will all work», — says political scientist Zhuravlev.

This is exactly how, he recalls, the richest companies operate in the mode of total shortage of personnel. Rosneft, Gazprom, Rosatom and other giants grow the right specialists for themselves, for which they pay universities.

«But the main employers do not pay universities. The logic is simple: why should I pay, they, that is, the workers, will not go anywhere, they will come. So we finished playing with this approach», — Zhuravlev estimates.

And so far the situation is hopeless. Millions of humanitarians trained in recent years will not get up to the machine now. And according to the Ministry of Labor, it is industry that is one of the largest segments of the labor market in terms of number. And of the 34 million employees of large and medium-sized businesses, over 5 million are in the industrial sector.

«And it is impossible to bring migrants under such a scheme. The one who has a good profession, according to the logic of banal emigration, simply will not go. Such people go only under a direct invitation. You can get as many men with shovels as you want, but you need to persuade a specialist, guarantee him a job, housing, and so on. And you can't easily buy housing on our salary», — the political scientist summed up.

Deputy Minister of Labor Yelena Mukhtiyarova voiced the personnel challenge facing Russia: by 2030, the country will need 2.5 million qualified personnel.