More Jobs than Workers ............................
by Anastasia Derzhavina
The Moscow News
On this year's labor market, the biggest demand is for technologists, engineers and real-estate market managers
Up to 90% of all jobs on the labor market are for skilled workers. There are an estimated 100,000 vacancies for such workers at Moscow enterprises. Especially high is the demand for construction workers in all sectors, welders, drivers, milling-machine operators, engineers and technologists.
Looming New Reality
This new reality is thus described by Nikolai Ryzhkov, president of the Russian Union of Manufacturers: "When old specialists retire, no one will come to take their place. Then we will see what real trouble is!" No wonder those who are about to choose an occupation are advised to opt for a technical field: Jobs for engineers and technicians are forecast to abound in the near future.
The real sector has been developing faster than others, facing a constant shortage of highly skilled specialists. Because of the 1990s industrial decline, Soviet-era technicians have either learned new trades or retired. Meanwhile, young people prefer the fashionable professions of auditor, broker or lawyer. As a result, demand for "production workers" exceeds supply.
Last year, adjusters, lathe operators and mechanics were especially prized; there was considerable demand for specialists in repairing manufacturing equipment. Owing to the disastrous shortage of production workers, factories have to train young people right on the job and lower the standards. Many employers pay scarce workers wages incommensurate with their poor skills.
There is also an overwhelming demand for managers of the booming real-estate market. The salaries of all specialists working in the real-estate sector are forecast to rise considerably.
Sea Change in Construction
Specialists at a Moscow academy have discovered a huge gap in the Russian economy.
It is hard to believe that biros were barred by the Soviet government. School kids were told that using a ballpoint would spoil their handwriting and thinking ability. A quiet switchover to biros has taken place regardless - with no casualties. A similar "revolution" has swept the field of construction: Today computer programs are used for automatic designing. The training of designer-engineers is experiencing a historic change of direction that replaces the drawing board, pencil and ruler with computer-based diagnosis and designing.
Formerly, if you wished to build a vessel or motorway or whatnot, you started by making a blueprint. Tons of paper and years of sweating over drawings went into the designs of dachas, electric networks, pipelines, etc. Today, a specialist with the necessary training can make such designs on a computer within hours.
What, then, is the problem? It is this: Russia has few, if any, technicians and engineers au fait with computer design despite the demand fuelled by the villa-building boom. One need only visit websites that post vacancies for specialists in computer design to see that their value is steadily rising. These specialists are worth their weight in gold.
Says Lydia Vasilyeva, director of the Academy of Automated Designing Systems and Geographic Information Systems: "The data we have are graphic proof that we have an insatiable market for specialists in systems engineering. Trading companies are hunting for such people, luring them by means fair of foul. But there aren't so many professionals who have command of the universal AutoCAD program."
Computerized designing is not on the official list of professions endorsed by the RF Ministry of Education despite the fact that the fate of our defense, machine-building and construction industries depends largely on our having enough specialists in computer design. |
