Vadim Leontyev, Deputy Plenipotentiary Representative of the RF President in the Northwestern Federal District, has reported that the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin sent a message of greeting to the organizers, guests and participants of the Forum. It was pointed out in the text that today Russia has to work at improving labor efficiency, preparing skilled specialists, implementing digital technologies and improving standards.

“I am sure that the Forum will be held in a constructive way and will promote formation of a contemporary labor market in Russia and CIS countries,” the message noted.

Aleksandr Beglov, Governor of St. Petersburg , addressed the participants with a welcoming speech. According to him, the Labor Forum has brought together over 7,500 delegates and guests from 85 Russian regions and over 20 foreign states, including representatives of CIS, BRICS and Shanghai Cooperation Organization countries.

“Under the leadership of the President, our country is strongly changing policy at the labor market. The head of the state ordered to prepare 1,000,000 skilled professionals over 3 years. A five-year forecasting of staffing requirements at the level of regions and country is being introduced in Russia. Over 10 years we should transit to the high wages economy, open up real opportunities for acquiring knowledge and skills for citizens of all ages,” the city governor noted.

He informed on the growth of real wages and industrial wages in St. Petersburg and on the growth of municipal economy, employment and labor market in 2023. Thus, the number of employed people in the city on the Neva has reached 3.6 mln, and an unemployment level is 1.5 %, the lowest rate in Russia and in the city history.

Aleksandr Beglov set out staffing of the industry as a priority objective and shared the experience of St. Petersburg in engaging the youth in industrial manufacturing owing to the program “Factory Petersburg”.

“St. Petersburg is ready to share its experience in career guidance, career counsellor work, holding career fairs and competitions,” he noted addressing the representatives of other regions.

RF Presidential Commissioner for the Rights of Children Maria Lvova-Belova reported at the Forum on the large-scale work Russian families. According to the instruction of the President, today it is especially necessary to work with the families in crisis, she said.

“Based on the results of a poll in the regions, a number of families undergo a crisis, because there is no opportunity to be normally employed. We carefully work in a targeted way with the families in challenging situations, contact the employers. It is essential to develop family support programs, including those concerning multi-child families, moreover, it is important that allowances are an additional rather than the principal source of the family income,” the Children’s Ombudsperson underlined.

Besides, she suggested that employers, first of all private companies, should open vacancies for special categories of jobseekers: families with children, young people with disabilities, teenagers.

“We should provide conditions for our families to become stronger and stable and to develop,” the speaker pointed out.

Andrey Kutepov, Head of the Northwestern Interregional Coordination Council of the United Russia party, Chair of the Committee on Economic Policy of the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation, called our time “the time of opportunities”, which “is reflected on the key economic development indices”. According to him, the whole number of industry branches have renewed the records, the country is in need of labor force, however, the number of job vacancies has twice exceeded the number of the unemployed.

“Staff shortage is the main challenge of the Russian economy, and now high emphasis is placed on preparing valuable talents. Thanks to the activities of the parliament and the government the legal framework is being updated,” he informed.

Senator Kutepov reminded about a new law on population employment having taken effect from January 1, 2024 that regulate measures of state support in the field of employment. He emphasized that one should use all reasonable efforts to prepare highly-skilled professionals, as “success of any enterprise, region and country as a whole depends on the quality of human capital”.

Aleksandr Belsky, Chair of the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg has also underlined the role of human capital. He noted that it is necessary to develop employee retraining possibilities, to encourage people to acquire new professions, to create new cooperation platforms.

Andrey Isaev, State Duma deputy, Deputy Head of United Russia faction reported on the revolutionary changes experienced by the Russian and world labor market. For instance, based on experts’ estimates, up to 60 % of professions will disappear by 2030, and the type of employment behavior will change.

The parliament member reminded on the development of remote work and platform employment and told about amendments to the legislation, in particular, on the law on remote work. According to him, owing to this law, the number of remote workers reached 6 mln people in 2020.

Andrey Isaev told about the reorganization of the employment service which “became open for everyone”. He underlined that one can apply to the employment service to find a more suitable job.

The Head of the Federal Service for Labor and Employment Mikhail Ivankov said about the importance of education and staff training. He stated that it is essential to provide equal access to the acquisition of knowledge and experience, and to ensure that employers have access to the trained staff.

“The great task is to connect a graduate and an employer. Graduates are one of the most critical resources to satisfy the staffing needs, an important factor of economy growth and technological development of the country,” the speaker added.

He told about the industrial training service launched on the portal “Job in Russia” since September, on reloading of employer-sponsored education, when a school leaver can choose a place of education, employment and residence, on the rearrangement of the employment service.

“The focus is placed on the youth, teenagers, parents of small children. The labor market is a market of a job seeker, today an employer competes for such staff. Rostrud (Federal Service for Labor and Employment) is observing positive changes, we use preventive measures instead of supervision,” the speaker stated.

In his welcoming address, the Rector of St. Petersburg State University Nikolay Kropachev reminded of SPbU jubilee and of 2024 as the Year of SPbU in St. Petersburg .

To date, 27 thousand students study at the oldest institution of higher education in Russia, there are 9 Nobel Prize winners among the University graduates and it is the leader with respect to new grants supported by the Russian Science Foundation. The SPbU Rector expressed the university readiness to work for the whole country.

The following foreign guests have also delivered their welcoming remarks at the Forum: the State Minister, the Minister of the State Employment and Social Security Service of Burkina Faso Bazye Bassolm and the General Director for State Service Issues of the Republic of Burundi Habonimana Esperanza. They spoke in favor of the labor market development and increase of jobs, and greeted their Russian colleagues.

The plenary session was attended by Dmitry Shakhanov, Deputy General Director of RZD OJSC, Evgeny Makarov, Deputy Chair of the Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Russia, Dmitry Puchkov, Director for Development of Avito Job platform, Marina Borisova, President of National Qualifications JSC, Deputy Chair of the Council for Vocational Qualifications in providing security in emergency situations, Vitaly Terentyev, Director for Cybersecurity and Government Relations of HeadHunter, Artem Shchadrin, General Director of the National Agency for Qualifications Development (ANO NARK), Sergey Pereslegin, an analyst and publicist, and Elena Chernova, the First Vice-Rector of SPbU.

Elena Chernova cited the SPbU research findings according to which positive changes can be observed in the occupational structure. For example, the majority of the Russians are satisfied with their work, over 70 % of citizens have favorable views for the future. One third of the Russians have secondary employment.

It is worth noting that people especially appreciate that they enjoy working, they consider significant the team environment, seek support in people surrounding them.

“Today, the very interpretation of human capital is being changed. The majority of Russian people think that for the development of potential it is essential not only to increase education, but also to improve health and social circle. Every other Russian national works in his specialty related to his education, and the more his/her job is related to education the more job satisfaction level is, the less frequent is the desire to change an activity area. Responsibility is the key value with regard to labor!”, the Vice-Rector noted.

The experts discussed staff shortage problems and issues of teenager employment, import substitution, specifics of employment support programs as well as the investments in the human capital.