Skills Shortages on the Russian Labor Market

摘要

For many years, both before and after the reforms, "labor hoarding" and the resulting labor surplus in Russian enterprises (i.e., more employees than are needed for the present or expected output) were considered trademarks of Russian industry. All surveys of industrial enterprises indicated that the same output could be produced with far fewer employees. And though in 1998 the number of employees was only 60 percent of the 1991 level, 36 percent of the enterprises surveyed by the Russian Economic Barometer (REB) still reported significant surplus labor. In 1999, Russia set out on a trajectory of economic growth, and the chronic labor surplus began to shrink gradually. In 1999-2003, industrial output increased by more than one-third, while employment remained practically unchanged, so that labor productivity rose appreciably. According to the REB, the percentage of enterprises reporting labor surpluses dropped from 45 percent in the third quarter of 1998 to 12 percent in the first quarter of 2003, while the proportion of enterprises with labor shortages rose from 10 percent to 25 percent during the same period.