Monday, November 14, 2022

Russia Now Faces Largest Labor Shortage Since 1993, Experts Say

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Nov. 12 – Russia has long faced a serious labor shortage – at the end of last year, two-thirds of Russian firms said they were having trouble finding qualified workers – but it has now become critical – it is the worst since 1993 -- as a result of sanctions-driven import substitution efforts and the expansion of military production for Putin’s war in Ukraine, Moscow experts say.

            They suggest that the war itself has removed up to ten percent of workers and potential workers in some industries and that the firms confronted with this problem have no hopes of replacing them anytime soon and can’t count on the government to provide the targeted training of Russians for the jobs they have (svpressa.ru/economy/article/351992/).

            What that means, these Russian experts say, is that many smaller firms will simply go out of business, others will contract and offer fewer and only lower quality products, and still others will try to find immigrants to fill the slots. But this will not solve the problem, and the Russian economy will experience another serious shock from worker shortages next year.

            That is when current stockpiles of production will run out and when, if firms can’t produce more, there simply won’t be any stock at all, including in critical defense industries. According to experts, both business and government know there is a problem but neither is working on a solution to it.

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