Breaking Another Record: Belarus Lacks Nearly 90 K Workers

Belarusians are massively leaving to work abroad.

In Belarus, the shortage of workers continues to grow. At present moment, almost 90 thousand offers from employers are placed in the republican vacancy bank. For example, at the beginning of May there were a little more than 80 thousand proposals from employers. The website tut.by figured out which workers were most lacking.

Now, there are 4380 offers from employers for car drivers, 2840 - for tractor drivers, 2580 - for sellers, 1650 - for cooks, 1050 - for electric and gas welders, 1,080 - for electricians for repair and maintenance of electric equipment, and almost 490 - for road workers, in the job bank.

There are also enough vacancies for builders. For example, for bricklayers - almost 1,450 offers from employers, plasterers - 970, painters - 840.

Earlier, the authorities decided to raise the salaries of construction workers leaving for work.

The Ministry of Construction and Architecture explained that in 2017 almost 50% of all those who left to work abroad were builders.

Health workers are also in short supply. Thus, the country lacks 3.3 thousand medical specialists, almost as many nurses, more than 850 paramedics. For nurses, 930 vacancies are open.

The authorities have repeatedly raised the issue of labor migration of Belarusians.

There is a growing shortage of workers in the Belarusian labor market. Thus, at the beginning of May, 63.1% of the total number of vacancies were announced in the working professions (a month earlier - 62.7%). For comparison: for the same period in 2018, for workers there were 61.4% of all employers’ proposals.

At the beginning of May in Belarus, the registered unemployment rate was 0.3%. In the Brest and Hrodna regions - 0.5%, in the Vitsebsk, Homel and Mahiliou regions - 0.4%, in the Minsk region - 0.3%, and in Minsk - 0.1%.

14.5 thousand people were officially unemployed at the beginning of this month. The coefficient of tension in the labor market of the republic amounted to 0.2 unemployed per vacancy. At the same time, in the Brest and Vitsebsk regions - 0.3 unemployed per vacancy, Homel, Hrodna and Mahiliou regions - 0.2, in the Minsk region and Minsk - 0.1 unemployed per vacancy.

Meanwhile, our workers are in demand in some neighboring countries and the Czech Republic. Belarusians are leaving to work abroad more often. In the first quarter of this year, 2,251 people went abroad in search of work. This information comes from the Department of Citizenship and Migration of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and the data of the countries to which they leave for work differs in a big way with regard to the number of labor migrants from Belarus. Of the trends, Belarusians are less and less likely to choose the Russian labor market, and Lithuanian and Czech more often.