Manpower shortage in Russia makes teenagers in demand

Last year, teenagers from the age of 14 began to be attracted to work more and more often due to the lack of manpower in labour market. According to a HeadHunter study, over the 12 months of 2023, more than 42 thousand vacancies were opened in Russia, for which employers were ready to accept minors. However, as SuperJob told Realnoe Vremya, most often, such employers cooperate with institutions of secondary vocational education and recruit young people in colleges.

Teenagers are offered from 15k to 25k rubles in Kazan

According to hh.ru analysts, three times more vacancies were opened for teenagers than in 2022 last year, when there were 14,500 of them. In turn, SuperJob experts said that underage applicants most often apply for the following positions (in descending order of the number of resumes):

• courier (if the employer employs minors, they are charged with prepaid orders of small weight or delivery of documents and non-commercial goods);

• call center operator;

• picker/order collector;

• copywriter;

• catering worker/waiter/barista.

For example, in Moscow, they are looking for a sales floor scanner, whose salary (on hand, after taxes) per month ranges from 42.4 to 51 thousand rubles. Voronezh is the second in terms of salary, where a storekeeper is required. A teenager can be offered 42 thousand rubles a month for this job. St. Petersburg and Saratov are the third place — in both cities, minors are offered 35 thousand rubles. However, the first one is looking for a customer service intern, and the second one is looking for a call center specialist (in both cases part-time).

They are followed by the capital of Tatarstan — teenagers are also offered a vacancy for a call center operator with a salary from 15 to 25 thousand rubles for a part-time job. Moscow rounds out the top 5 again — a cook-cashier for 270 rubles per hour (work only for those who are already 16 years old).

Employment of minors is getting simplier

In June 2023, State Duma deputies adopted a law simplifying the employment of teenagers from the age of 14 in the second and third readings. It involves the abolition of obtaining consent from the guardianship authorities when concluding an employment contract with minors who have received general education and who have parents. Thus, this need remained only in relation to orphans and children left without care.

As stated in the explanatory note, 91% of Russian high school students would like, according to a VTSIOM study from 2021, to earn extra money during the summer holidays.

SuperJob noted that every second Russian (49%) supported this idea. According to the surveyed citizens, children over the age of 14 could already earn extra money, but unnecessary bureaucratic procedures complicate their employment. One in four (25%) opposes: respondents argue their position with the possibility of child labour abuse.

The bill was actively supported by the parents of teenagers: 66% of them are convinced that there is no need for the permission of guardianship authorities for child employment. At the same time, 18% of parents told about their child's part-time work experience. For example, 8% reported that employment was formalised officially (children worked in the detachments of governors and mayors, libraries, health camps, laying out goods in stores), another 10% informally (as promoters, couriers, movers, waiters, billstickers, sellers, etc.).

Russians are against the work of minors in hazardous industries

Already in the autumn of 2023, Tatarstan deputies prepared amendments to the Labour Code of Russia, according to which minors aged 16 to 18 years will be allowed to work “in jobs with harmful and (or) dangerous working conditions under a fixed-term employment contract for practical training in the relevant profession”.

The authors of the amendments note that in a note to the list of hard work and work with harmful or dangerous working conditions (approved by the government) it says: during the internship, underage students who have reached the age of 16 can be at work included in the list for no more than 4 hours a day. Besides, sanitary rules and labour protection standards must be strictly observed for them.

This initiative did not find high support among Russians. According to SuperJob, 76% of citizens are against employing minors in hazardous industries. The main arguments relate to health and safety. Only one in nine supported the bill — 11%, and their argument was that “children used to work on an equal basis with adults, because there was no infantilism.”

At the same time, according to analysts, the older Russians are, the more opponents there are among them: 67% among citizens under 34 years old and 81% among people over 45 years old. Most of the negative feedback came from parents — 82% of them are categorically against involving minors to work in industries with dangerous conditions.