Investment Portal of the Arctic Zone of the Russian Federation
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The staffing needs in the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation until 2035 have been determined

The Agency for Human Capital Development in the Russian Far East and the Arctic, together with Petrozavodsk State University and the Northern (Arctic) Federal University named after M.V. Lomonosov have estimated the staffing needs of the Russian Arctic zone's economy.

13 December 2020

As of December 2020, the Arctic employers' needs are 182.4 thousand new jobs until 2035. This need was identified by the more than 3,400 Arctic organisations that have taken part in the study and account for 69.2% of all the social workers and 59.3% of the real sector of the economy in all the 74 municipalities in the nine Arctic regions.

At the present, 2.5 million people live in the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation, and 1.4 million are employed in the economy, including 208 thousand (15%) that work on a rotational basis.

'Determining staffing needs is the foundation for ensuring that qualified personnel are trained in accordance with the economy's needs. The identified needs allow us to adjust the number of graduates in a given specialisation of secondary or higher education, and to carry out tried-and-true career guidance work', comments Ivan Efimov, Deputy General Director of Agency for Human Capital Development.

Contrasting and comparing the projected staffing needs and the existing system of vocational education in the Arctic territories has revealed a significant shortfall in the training of local specialists and human resources. Staff training by universities and colleges based in the Arctic territories cannot fully compensate for the shortage of workers: over the past 10 years, the admission rate of students to Arctic universities has decreased from 12 thousand to 5.4 thousand, and to branches of universities in the Arctic territories from 11.7 thousand to 1.5 thousand people.

The study has also shown that over the past 15 years, the number of students in the Arctic territories has decreased by four times. In addition, the number of state-sponsored places in educational institutions for high school graduates is also two times lower than the average in Russia.

From 2021, onwards the Arctic will require several tens of thousands of more professionals annually. A third of them are workers with a university degree, almost half are mid-level specialists, including skilled workers and employees, and a fifth are unskilled labourers. At the same time, the labour shortage can be traced across the territory of all the 74 Arctic municipalities, and today they already have to resort to involving shift workers.

'A preliminary analysis shows that only half the annual additional staffing needs of the Arctic economy are covered through the regional vocational training system. This coverage degree differs, depending on the economy sector and the humanitarian sphere. Correctly estimated indicators of staffing needs will allow employers and authorities of the Arctic regions to work out the optimal staffing strategy', said Valery Gurtov, Director of Budget Monitoring Centre of Petrozavodsk State University, Doctor of Physics and Mathematics.

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