Automation Seen Eliminating 20 Million Current Jobs in Russian Economy over Next Decade

Paul Goble

            Staunton, January 6 – Automation will eliminate some 20 million positions in the Russian economy over the next decade, according to Aleksandr Safonov of the Moscow Academy of Labor and Social Relations, with the largest number of existing jobs lost in retail trade and transportation.

            Declines in the number of new entrants to the workforce will deal with some of these losses, he suggests; but there will be a need for massive retraining of existing workers and the restructuring of the country’s educational system to cope with a shift of this size (russian.rt.com/russia/article/703549-rynok-trud-desyatiletie).

            The size of the challenge is enormous: Nearly one in four of the jobs Russians currently have will disappear or be fundamentally changed over the next ten years, a remarkably short period in which to retrain millions of people, especially at a time when the government is cutting back on spending in many aspects of education.

            In almost all fields, there will be a need for those with computer and digitalization skills. In addition, Safonov says, there will also be a demand for more medical professionals and especially those who work in biotechnology. And there will also be a need for designers and inventors as well as marketing professionals.