Unemployment drops to 0.18%, salaries rise by 21%: Kazan’s labour market in review

11 vacancies per unemployed person in the capital of Tatarstan

Kazan recorded a record low unemployment rate in 2024: it amounted to 0.18%. If by January 2024 there were 1,765 officially registered unemployed in the city, then in 2025 their number decreased to 1,193 people. Such figures were announced by Timur Mullin, the director of the Tatarstan Employment Centrer, on Business Monday at the city hall.

At the same time, the shares of certain categories of citizens are increasing in the structure of the unemployed:

• at the age of 16-29 years — from 7% to 8.4%;

• women — from 70% to 72.6%, including those with preschool children — from 13% to 14%;

• citizens with disabilities — from 7% to 9%;

• long-term unemployed — from 11% to 13%.

According to Mullin, the total number of labour resources in Kazan today is 757,000 people (by 18,100 more than a year earlier).

There is an acute shortage of workers in trade, as well as in delivery services and medicine, where the level of competition is less than two and four resumes per vacancy, respectively. Salaries for the declared vacancies increased by 21%, reaching 72,000 rubles, the speaker added.

“According to the forecast for 2025, design engineers, developers, specialists in technical and applied sciences will be in greater demand, since one of the urgent tasks for the state is data engineering and the development of technologies related to the import substitution of various products," Mullin added.

Quota for admission of disabled people in Kazan has been fulfilled by only 49%

At the same time, the employment of people with disabilities remains an urgent problem, complained the director of the Employment Centre. In total, more than 18,000 able-bodied citizens with disabilities live in Kazan, 6,400 of them are employed, which is 36%, while the target indicator for the city is 40%. To achieve this goal, 725 more applicants should be employed.

This is hindered primarily by employers' fear of accepting people with disabilities and creating special working conditions. To solve this problem, the Employment Centre provides companies with subsidies for the costs incurred — but not more than 200,000 rubles per workplace.

The quota for admission of disabled people in Kazan was fulfilled by only 49%, it followed from Mullin's report. 1,543 enterprises are expected to implement it, but only 756 have done so. The speaker named the Kazan Helicopters plant, Elekon Plant, Kazan Aircraft Production Association, and the Vodokanal Municipal Unitary Enterprise as “reference examples”.

“Some employers deliberately fail to meet the quota requirements even after providing advisory services," said the director of the Employment Centre. “The work on their identification is ongoing. Thus, as a result of joint inspections with the city prosecutor's office and the Ministry of Labour of Tatarstan, 270 employers have been warned against violating the requirements of the law. Four of them received representations from the prosecutor's office, and officials were brought to justice.

“We have been living in the free market paradigm imposed on us for a long time. As a result, we have what we have”

In 2024, 27 fighters who returned from the war zone in Ukraine and 18 members of their families applied to the Employment Centre for employment. Fourteen of them have been employed, 10 have completed vocational training. Two members of the families of the participants of the SVO, with the support of the employment service, opened their own business: they were allocated subsidies in the amount of 145,000 rubles, Mullin said.

A total of 235 people are listed in the register of those who returned from the SVO zone, he added. 216 fighters do not need employment for health reasons or in connection with medical rehabilitation, 18 have retained employment, and 7 have been registered.

In general, 18,700 citizens used the services of the employment centre last year: they were interested in vocational training, career guidance, temporary employment, etc.

“Training within the framework of the Demography national project has become the most in demand: 2,300 people have received a new profession for free. Eighty percent were employed. The national project operated from 2019 to 2024, during which time almost 20,000 Kazan residents completed vocational training, the speaker said.

In 2025, free education will continue thanks to the Personnel national project, he stressed.

“For a long time we lived in the paradigm of the free market imposed on us, believing that it would regulate everything on its own. As a result, we have what we have," stated Ilsur Metshin, Mayor of Kazan. “The collapsed vocational education was done intentionally by liberal circles. There was a surplus of unclaimed specialists when we overproduced accountants, lawyers, and other professions. Today, work on errors is carried out at the most serious level, including the Personnel national project.”