The expert named the areas with salary increases and staff reductions

Due to the automation of some processes in the banking sector, IT, logistics and medicine, there is an increase in wages and at the same time a reduction in personnel. This was announced on April 28 by Alexander Safonov, a professor at the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation.

In his opinion, this is due to the need to refocus companies on personnel capable of working with new technologies. For example, artificial intelligence (AI) and automation are being actively introduced in the IT sector, resulting in a reduction in staff to perform certain tasks. At the same time, there is a growing demand for developers, ML engineers, cybersecurity and AI experts, and an increase in salary helps keep employees in the company.

"Similar trends can be found in other industries where digital transformation, process automation and resource redistribution are taking place," Safonov explained in an interview with TASS.

A similar trend is also observed in retail, consulting, and business services.

Business shortage: Russia's talent pool has almost halved in five years

Why are there fewer and fewer applicants and in which regions there is no such problem?

The day before, Roman Yerkhov, CEO of TuBi recruitment company, said that the reduction of the personnel reserve in Russia is systemic and is associated with several long-term factors at once. Thus, the reduction is influenced by the demographic situation, increased competition for personnel and the development of technology.

On the same day, it was reported that the personnel reserve in Russia is rapidly declining: in 2025, it decreased to 4.4 million people — by 9%. This is 415 thousand less than a year earlier.