Labor stimulus: Russian business will receive subsidies from the government to hire unemployed

Russian business will receive additional funds from the state for the employment of unemployed citizens.

This was announced on Monday, March 22, by the head of the country's government, Mikhail Mishustin, at a meeting with the deputy prime ministers.

“The President has set a task - by the end of the year to restore employment to the level that was before the spread of the coronavirus.

To this end, we are introducing a new recruitment incentive tool.

Companies and individual entrepreneurs will be able to receive subsidies from the state if they employ non-working citizens who, as of January 1 of this year, were registered in employment centers as unemployed, ”Mishustin said.

The size of the subsidy will be equal to three minimum wages, increased by the amount of insurance contributions to state extra-budgetary funds and the regional coefficient.

As a result, the total amount of payments to business will be about 50 thousand rubles per job, the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection explained.

The funds will be credited in three stages.

Companies will receive the first payment one month after hiring a new employee, the second three months later, and the third six months later.

The employer will be able to apply for payment remotely using the Work in Russia portal.

If the necessary conditions are met, the company or individual entrepreneur will receive funds from the Social Insurance Fund within ten working days.

“The federal budget has already allocated more than 12 billion rubles for these purposes.

It is expected that this measure will allow employing at least 200 thousand people, ”the government decree says.

Recall that in 2020, against the backdrop of the coronavirus pandemic, the government approved a number of measures to support entrepreneurs.

One of the most popular initiatives of the authorities was soft loans to businesses at 2% per annum to pay salaries to employees.

According to the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade, more than 200 thousand credit agreements worth over 400 billion rubles were concluded within the framework of the program.

In total, the measure supported more than 5 million jobs.

On March 1, 2021, the government approved a new program of salary loans to businesses at a preferential rate of 3% per annum.

As expected in the Cabinet of Ministers, the initiative should support about 75 thousand entrepreneurs, whose companies employ 1.5 million people.

Many Russian companies still feel the negative effects of the pandemic and often lack funds for their current activities.

Georgy Ostapkovich, director of the Center for Market Research at the Institute for Statistical Studies and Economics of Knowledge, NRU HSE, told RT about this.

According to him, in these conditions, enterprises need additional help to increase jobs.

“The decline in employment has become one of the main challenges for Russia during the pandemic.

The authorities need to support the population, because the position of the economy as a whole depends on people.

Against this background, the allocation of subsidies to enterprises for the employment of the unemployed will improve the situation on the labor market, ”added Ostapkovich.

In addition to reimbursing the costs of organizing a new workplace, the money received from the state will be able to send business to other production needs.

This opinion was shared with RT by the head of the analytical research department of the Higher School of Financial Management Mikhail Kogan.

“There can be a lot of options for using these funds.

This is the payment of rent, and an increase in the wages fund, as well as the payment of loans and taxes, ”explained Kogan.

At the same time, subsidizing enterprises will help reduce shadow employment.

Anastasia Uskova, general director of the Rocket Work platform, expressed this point of view in an interview with RT.

“The new payments are likely to support and accelerate the whitewashing of labor relations where salaries are only slightly different from the minimum wage, and employees receive money in an envelope.

Such measures can force many employers to think about transferring their employees to official status in order to qualify for subsidies, ”the expert said.

Working update

To support the labor market, the government has also expanded its citizens' retraining program.

Now, not only Russians who lost their jobs due to the pandemic, but also people over 50, as well as women with small children, will be able to undergo retraining and receive additional vocational education.

For these purposes, in 2021, the authorities will allocate 10 billion rubles from the budget, in 2022 and 2023 - 7.4 billion rubles each.

“We expect that annually at least 115 thousand people who have difficulties in finding a job will be able to master professions that are in demand on the market,” emphasized Mikhail Mishustin.

With the correct organization of the process, retraining programs will be in high demand, says Anastasia Uskova.

According to her, the pandemic has spurred the process of digitalization and automation in the economy.

As a result, the problems of insufficient competence of a number of employees were exposed, as well as the lack of need for some personnel.

“Therefore, first of all, we need IT specialists of various kinds, who will ensure the digital transition.

Also, the universal distance has consolidated the trend for remote consumption: online retail and online education, finance, social networks, delivery services.

Business in these areas has been growing throughout the past year and will continue to grow further, so a large number of vacancies will appear in these areas, ”the expert is sure.

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According to experts, the measures taken by the government will accelerate the recovery of the Russian labor market.

Recall that in 2020, against the backdrop of the consequences of the coronavirus pandemic, unemployment in the country increased significantly and reached its maximum values ​​in August - 6.4%.

At that time, more than 3.6 million people were registered in employment centers.

Meanwhile, to date, the indicators have already significantly decreased.

So, according to the Federal State Statistics Service, at the end of February 2021, unemployment in Russia dropped to 5.7%.

At the same time, the number of officially registered unemployed is currently 1.9 million, according to data from the Ministry of Labor.

“Most likely, the unemployment rate will return to pre-crisis levels early next year.

However, this will be possible subject to a decrease in the incidence of coronavirus, assistance from the state and vaccination of 40-50% of the country's population, ”concluded Georgy Ostapkovich.