Year of spongers and the unemployed

It will be hard for Belarusians to find a job in 2015.

Enterprises suffering financial difficulties do not want to hire new employees, but actively dismiss experienced ones, "Ezhednevnik" reports.

Official statistics, as well as data of recruitment agencies reflect the impact of the crisis on the labour market. Employers would rather dismiss employees than hire them. There is a surplus of labour on the market and competition for jobs has escalated.

Enterprises do not need employees.

Official bodies for labour and employment noted a labour demand reduction – in their base 40% fewer vacancies occurred in 2014 than in 2013. From the number of job offers on the labour market last year turned to be the worst for the last five years (graph from the site of Ministry of Labour and Social Protection of the Republic of Belarus).

Analysts observe the same trend. The number of vacancies on the site in 2014 decreased by 9% compared to the previous year.

Not only enterprises do not want to recruit a new staff, but also cut already existing one. The Belstat yet presents data only for November: that was the first month in 2014 when a number of people dismissed exceeded the number of those hired (61 thousand against 59).

Some employees were forced to work a part-time job. There is no data for the year, but still figures for January-October are quite sound: for 10 months the number of employees working part time increased by 77% (54 thousand people). There were 34% more employees sent on a leave for an employer's initiative.

One can expect data for December 2014 and January 2015 to be even more alarming.

Companies will tighten their belts.

The situation is hardly to change in the future: Most of enterprises expect their economic situation to worsen and thus, they will continue laying off employees.

A survey among top managers showed that about 60% of them stated their intention to cut costs in the company. About 48% of respondents were in favor of optimizing the functional responsibilities of employees. Some companies in the production and distribution sphere sent their employees on long-lasting vacations. A third of companies surveyed refused holding corporate events, 16% refused additional bonuses and 28% - the indexation of salaries and another 8% of employers stated their intention to reduce wages.

Labour force, released on the market in 2014, not wanting to join ranks of spongers, has actively started looking for new jobs. In 2014 the number of vacancies on jobs.TUT.by increased by 45% compared to 2013. As a result, competition among candidates sharpened: There were more than 4 candidates for a work place in 2014.

Competition even among top managers increased: for the year, the number of candidates for a work place increased from 4 to 9.

According to some experts, in late 2014 migrants, working in Russia, but lost work places because of a crisis and returned to the homeland, also joined labour market.

It is worth noting that public services for labor and employment did not notice an increase of the number of vacancies. According to their data, about 250 thousand Belarusians was in need of employment in January-November 2014.