Pandemic Increases Competition for Workers

Because the pandemic has decreased the quantity of employees in the global labor market, businesses will face greater competition for workers. This is the conclusion reached by experts at The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) in their research “Investing in Personnel”, Kommersant  writes.

To begin with, according to the experiences of the United States, experts aged 30–35 were quitting the job market. Because many governmental social institutions were closed during the epidemic, some of them were compelled to leave their employment to care for children or parents.

Others discovered that they could survive without working because of the extra social benefits provided during the epidemic, particularly if they earned little.

Some employed people thought it was difficult to work under the previous circumstances in a pandemic, so they quit the labor market temporarily, hoping for a salary rise or a restructuring of employment.

Contrary to popular belief, the rise of teleworking has not resulted in more pleasant working conditions: BCG polled employees and found that 41 percent felt worse over the previous year, while just 23 percent felt better.

While BCG mainly covers the US and global average labor markets, several of the patterns identified by analysts may also be observed in Russia. So, in the first half of this year, the Russian Federation’s unemployment rate dropped from 5.8 percent to 4.8 percent, while the number of openings rose on both commercial recruitment sites and official employment agencies.

Russian candidates, like international applicants, are interested in hybrid jobs, in which the ability to work from home must be coupled with access to an office where meetings or work may be held two to three days a week. For young job searchers, the option of working remotely is more essential than the company’s perks from a social package, which include a health insurance program, a fitness facility, and a parking lot.