russia’s Industry Is Short of Young Workers, Funding, and Modernization

The ministry of industry of the rf has acknowledged that the sector is short of nearly 1.9 million workers. Of these, more than 500,000 are expected to be specialists with higher education, and another 1.4 million – with vocational training. The figures speak for themselves, but the real problem is not the number, but where these people are supposed to come from.

In 2024, universities and specialized vocational schools graduated over 386,000 engineers and technical specialists. However, only 27–28% of graduates in some manufacturing specialties remain in the industry after completing their studies. The rest go where the pay is better. Every year, the system trains personnel that industry cannot retain.

There are several reasons for this, and none can be resolved quickly. Companies are suffocating under expensive loans and a lack of investment – there is simply no money to raise salaries. The age structure of the workforce is collapsing: over the past ten years, the share of workers under 30 has dropped from 22% to 12%, while the share of those over 60 has risen by nearly 60%. Factories are aging along with their workers, and there is no change.

Technological upgrades, which could partially offset the labor shortage, are also stalling. Automation and digitization are progressing too slowly to replace those who have left or passed away. As a result, companies are staying afloat thanks to their workforce size – an archaic model that needs an ever-increasing number of people, a pol of whom is constantly shrinking.

Sectors requiring a combination of engineering knowledge, production discipline, and experience of working with complex equipment will be the first to be hit. A vicious cycle emerges: there aren’t enough people to do the work, but there aren’t enough to modernize it either. Enterprises will maintain current production cycles but will be unable to invest in automation and new technologies. In this case, the rf’s technological lagging behind the rest of the world will only deepen – and no new mobilization plan will fix this.