The number of Russians working two or more jobs has fallen to a historic low

According to the results of the first quarter of this year, the number of Russians working two or more jobs has decreased to a historical minimum - slightly more than a million people, according to official data. It is hard to believe in such data. Did our fellow citizens really earn well in the previous two years, save up money in bank deposits and now do not need anything?

We are talking about able-bodied citizens aged 15 and older. According to Rosstat, the total number of such part-time workers has decreased to 1 million 44 thousand people. There is no data in open sources on which year was the most "fruitful" for the country in terms of part-time workers. It is simply reported that this figure has not previously fallen below 1.3 million people.

But this, we emphasize, is official data. And unofficially, for example, a year ago one employment agency reported that 24% of employed people in the country work part-time.

As a rule, the second job of our fellow citizens is related to entrepreneurial activity without forming a legal entity. At the beginning of the year, about 380 thousand people were engaged in it.

It is noted that men have more part-time jobs than women: 563 thousand versus 481 thousand, respectively.

Approximately 25% of part-time workers are employed in agriculture and forestry. Additional work is also held by highly qualified specialists (185 thousand) and 156 thousand skilled workers in industry, construction and transport.

Could the decline in this indicator somehow affect the labor market as a whole? The situation here is still tense. According to economists' forecasts, the labor shortage will be around 3 million people in the next 6 years. If previously some vacancies were filled to a certain extent by part-time workers, then the current results show that there are fewer people in Russia who want to have two or more jobs.

Is it dangerous for the economy? Experts say no According to statistics, the working-age population in Russia in 2024 was 80.5 million people. What is a million part-time workers "with a tail"? About 1.2%, which cannot affect the overall situation in any way.

- It is too early to draw any definite conclusions, - explains Alexander Safonov, professor at the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation. - We need to make sure that this is a sustainable trend. And that it is not connected, for example, with the optimization of the tax system. After that, we can evaluate whether this is a plus or a minus for our economy. So far, the decrease in the number of part-time workers can be explained by two circumstances. The first is the growth of wages in certain areas. In the last two years, it has been growing at a record pace. A person already needs the basic rate at his official place of work to live a normal life. The second point is the decrease in production volumes and the provision of services. These factors indicate a certain cooling of the economy, a decrease in demand from the population. Which in turn leads to the fact that the need for part-time work is decreasing.

- Is this a common phenomenon?

- No, it is typical for certain industries. For example, the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Education are trying to limit part-time work due to a shortage of medical and teaching staff.

- Nevertheless, the labor shortage in the labor market remains, and there are not many people willing to find a second job...

- There has always been a shortage of personnel, and it is characteristic of certain professions. The shortage of teachers, doctors or utility workers did not arise today. People do not go to places where the salary is inadequate for the intensive working conditions. The shortage is also experienced by industries that produce goods that were not produced before. There was an objective lack of personnel training.

- But how accurately can the statistical agency count part-time workers - after all, there is a rather large shadow employment market?

- It has no information about part-time workers at small and medium-sized enterprises: these organizations are not sources of information for the statistical agency. Such data is provided only by large enterprises. Statistics are also unable to take into account the situation in which the employer hides employment through the self-employment regime. The story is typical: in order to reduce taxes, the employer transfers the employee to self-employed. Officially reduces the employee's rate to 0.5 or 0.25, and pays him the rest of the money in an envelope. It turns out that officially the employee works, say, half-time, from which taxes are deducted. But de facto at one, 1.5 or even two rates. The budget suffers from lost taxes.

Published in the newspaper "Moskovsky Komsomolets" No. 29534 of June 3, 2025

Newspaper headline: Work is worse than bondage