Back and forth: blue-collar workers began to look for themselves in related specialties

The competition of employers for the most sought—after specialties in the labor market — workers - has lost its urgency: salary offers have stopped growing, analysts stated. As a result, this year the trend of migration to related professions has become dominant among blue—collar applicants: representatives of working and linear specialties have become more likely to respond to vacancies in similar areas. For example, handymen, builders, repairmen, agricultural, forestry, and fisheries workers have become donor groups for skilled worker vacancies. What else explains the trend and how employers should prepare for it is in the Izvestia article.

Where are the workers "flowing into"

Representatives of working professions, as well as linear ones (performers of basic functions), began to respond more often to vacancies not in their main specialty, but to offers from related fields. This trend was highlighted by Avito Rabota analysts in their labor market digest dedicated to the results of 2025 (Izvestia has it).

It notes that the peak growth in salary offers has been left behind: in 2025, the rate of increase in the salaries offered is restrained (now 10%, and in 2024 - 22%) and is approximately at the same level as the expectations of candidates. Companies are still continuing to increase their staff, but more slowly and cautiously against the background of proactive hiring in recent years. But the dynamics of job activity increased by an average of 16%, while it is significantly higher for a number of vacancies in working and linear specialties. For example, interest in the positions of warehouse workers increased by 31%.

According to Rosstat, the labor force in Russia is 74.8 million people, 49% of whom are so—called blue—collar workers. The shortage of workers is estimated at more than 800 thousand people, a special need is fixed in industry, logistics and agriculture: there are not enough qualified industrial workers, operators of production plants and machines, assemblers and drivers.

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Which specialists are currently lacking and in which regions

Against the background of employers' cooling down to the "ruble" struggle for applicants, they are expanding the search radius for related specialties — and here the key is not the salary (which is almost not growing), but more comfortable working conditions, prospects for retraining, and, accordingly, new opportunities. In addition, the factors of career growth and greater respect for the profession in society are significant (increasingly, vacancies requiring more experience and qualifications are being chosen).

Therefore, as analysts have noted, representatives of unskilled workers and linear specialties are increasingly responding to vacancies from close areas and, on average, are considering three or more at once.

For example, people with resumes of handymen, builders, repairmen, agricultural, forestry and fisheries workers, operators of special equipment, specialists in railway, maritime and air transportation, as well as cleaners and household assistants respond to vacancies for qualified workers.

And drivers, workers in industry, metalworking and finishing shops, workers in agriculture, forestry and fisheries, builders and repairmen, handymen, warehouse workers are applying for vacancies for machinists and assemblers.

In addition, those who responded to the "grinder" vacancy also sent resumes to the positions of a driller, a grinder, a sharpener, a restorer and an electroplator. Almost 70% of candidates applying for the machinist position were simultaneously interested in other professions, as were more than 40% of applicants considering milling positions.

— According to our data, 56% of applicants with experience have changed their profession two or more times, meaning that people increasingly see a long—term perspective in changing their professional track, - said Roman Gubanov, Director of Development at Avito Rabota. — It is important for employers to take this trend into account and talk about their willingness to consider specialists with related experience and offer training.

Profile Change Catalysts

The labor market is indeed becoming a more fluid environment, Ekaterina Kashtanova, Associate professor of the Department of Personnel Management at the State University of Management, explained to Izvestia.

— The trend of migration is not completely new — adaptation and profile change have always existed, but the current conditions have catalyzed it. When salary offers for workers and linear professions have reached a plateau, and the shortage of personnel persists, a kind of destruction of rigid professional boundaries sets in," she said. — Job seekers expand their job search not out of a good life, but out of necessity and out of pragmatism.

Anna Khripchenko, Director of the Career Center at the Presidential Academy, confirmed that the migration trend has intensified and called it an adaptive labor market strategy.

— In addition, after the pandemic, workers have increased their mobility and flexibility. Therefore, in a situation where they cannot achieve significant growth in a particular place, they start looking for opportunities elsewhere," she said.

According to Ekaterina Kashtanova, employers should now be ready to "upgrade" and retrain applicants with similar functionality: it is beneficial to accept an employee from a "close field" who only needs to be taught the specifics.

"This is no longer a struggle for the "golden" specialist with excessive demands,— she said. — In addition, employers, faced with a shortage of personnel, begin to appreciate not only narrow specialization, but also universal qualities: responsibility, efficiency, learning ability, physical endurance, the ability to work with tools.

Elena Witchak, a professor of business practice at the Moscow School of Management Skolkovo, agreed that employers stop looking for the "ideal profile" and start hiring based on the principle of potential and basic suitability, rather than an exact match to the profession.

— Many line and work professions today require similar basic skills: physical endurance, discipline, safety, tool handling, responsibility. The transition between them has become shorter and cheaper," she said.

The professor added that people are more likely to "move sideways" than upward: there are fewer and fewer people who want to take on difficult leadership roles. And Anastasia Gorelkina, an expert on the labor market, noted that even within the working professions there is a growing interest in more complex and technological roles, where new skills can be added to practice and the area of responsibility gradually expanded.

Among the groups of areas where employees can "flow over" to other areas, Elena Witchak named: "construction — production — housing and communal services", "agriculture — processing — logistics", "warehouse — production — transport". And technical and polytechnic roles can be performed by the groups "electricians — adjusters — technical staff" and "equipment operators — supervisors — shift masters".

Among other examples, Ekaterina Kashtanova mentioned secretaries — now they are often required to fully or partially perform the functions of a personnel accounting specialist. And from the service sector, waiters, bartenders and sales consultants, thanks to their developed communication skills, can easily transfer to administrative staff, call centers, claims management or online support services, as well as to initial positions in the event industry.

Invaluable staff: employers have doubled their salary offer in five years

And they are ready to offer drivers and couriers four times more, analysts say.

Alexander Lobanov, Deputy Director of Business Development at the Unity HR company, recalled that several years ago, working in the same field for a long time was considered a good recommendation for an employee in the eyes of the employer.

— And now those who have experience in related fields often have more advantages in finding employment. Transitions can be diverse: couriers become drivers, storekeepers become foremen," he said. — Within the same company, this trend can also be expressed in the fact that one employee is offered to combine work in several positions in related fields. For example, this is increasingly being practiced in various industries.

Viktor Lyashok, a senior researcher at the Institute for Strategic Analysis and Forecasting of the Presidential Academy, noted that overflows had already been observed in 2023-2024.

—Wage growth was disproportionate between sectors of the economy, and industries with the greatest shortage of personnel became the main drivers of such growth and thus attracted the largest number of workers," he said.

Roman Yerkhov, CEO of TuBi recruitment company, noted that what is currently being observed is not a random movement, but a structural adaptation of the labor market to a long-term shortage of personnel. In the near future, mobility between directions will increase in manufacturing, construction, transport, warehouse logistics, agricultural processing, utilities and technical service professions. Transitions between security, operational and auxiliary technical functions are also possible.

He called this trend a sign of market maturity in the face of labor shortages and at the same time a challenge for the education system, which will have to adapt more quickly to real employment trajectories, Roman Yerkhov said.