The demand for skills: why Russia is experiencing an oversupply of lawyers and economists

The VNII Labor said that in Russia there is an oversupply of specialists with higher education in the field of business, law and administration. 

“If we talk about specific professions, these are lawyers, economists, financiers.

The number of unemployed specialists in these professions significantly exceeds the number of corresponding vacancies in the employment service.

Among the applicants, there are also recent graduates, ”representatives of the institution explained to RT.

The situation on the market is not caused by the fact that the listed professions are no longer relevant, but by the fact that the requirements for representatives of these specialties are changing.

As the experts explained, the demand is not formed for the professions themselves, but for certain skills and competencies. 

“For example, an economist, in order to make calculations for an investment project, to assess its effectiveness, needs to have design skills in a specific industry.

Narrow-profile employees with relevant work experience are required.

At the same time, it is not easy to find a suitable specialist, even if it is a vacancy with a good salary offer, ”the institute noted.

However, taking into account the pace of economic development, the competition for qualified personnel among employers will only increase, the representatives of the institution concluded.

The head of the Superjob research center, Natalya Golovanova, in a conversation with RT, confirmed that the situation with an oversupply of lawyers and economists in the job market does exist, but it is not new.

“In finance and law, the demand for entry-level professionals continues to decline.

Universities produce more specialists than the market needs, especially in an environment where numerous routine processes are automated.

And this despite the fact that the number of budget-funded places in universities in the fields of finance, economics and law is decreasing every year, ”the expert explained, adding that today, as in the unstable period of 2014, demand is growing for advanced analysts and specialists with experience in anti-crisis management. ...

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For his part, the deputy general director of the Rabota.ru service, Alexander Veterkov, noted that there are a lot of responses to such vacancies on job search sites - up to several hundred a day.

“For one such published vacancy, the employer receives more than 100 responses within three to four days, and sometimes their number on the first day reaches 500,” he said in an interview with RT, not excluding that this trend will continue in the future.

At the same time, the expert suggested that the oversupply may be caused not only by the growing demand for certain skills and competencies, but by a number of more general reasons.

First, there are much more universities with an economic or legal bias in Russia than, for example, technical ones - hence the greater number of graduates.

Secondly, applicants often depend on the conservative views of their parents on issues related to education.

According to Veterkov, many still believe that the profession of an economist or financier will always be in demand.

Georgy Ostapkovich, Director of the Center for Market Research at the Institute for Statistical Studies and Economics of Knowledge, NRU HSE, added that Russia is one of the world leaders in terms of the share of the population with tertiary education - higher and specialized, including those with economic and legal education.

However, according to the expert, the problem here is not that there are many specialists with such an education, but that the level of their skills and competencies does not always correspond to the high standards that employers set for them.

“Unfortunately, in terms of the quality of competencies, the level of knowledge we have (specialists -

) there are not so many of them.

Despite the fact that we rank first in tertiary education, our universities for the most part are not included in international university rankings, "Ostapkovich clarified in a conversation with RT.

Intellectually complex professions will be in demand

Back in early 2018, the ex-deputy head of Rosobrnadzor Natalia Naumova criticized Russian universities for the fact that educational institutions train an excessive number of lawyers and economists.

“These are the largest segments in which Russian universities continue to train students.

The question is - why dilute the labor market, when today admission control figures are planned, checked with the region and declared for a specific need?

Why do you need to graduate ten times more lawyers and economists?

So that they don't find a job later? "

She wondered.

The situation is aggravated by the fact that, according to the data presented in the report of the World Economic Forum "The Future of Jobs Report", by 2025 the specialists least in demand among Russian employers will be just ordinary employees of the accounting department, auditors, lawyers. , secretaries and others.

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At the same time, the most promising professions in the next ten years will be professions related to biotechnology and IT.

So, according to analysts of the hh.ru job search service, they will include designers of a smart environment, bioengineers, biopharmacologists, experts in the field of cybersecurity, robotics, alternative energy, neuropsychologists, as well as architects and designers of virtual reality.

As an expert in the field of HR, the labor market and career building Andrey Alyasov explained to RT, in the future those professions that are not technically or intellectually complex may indeed face certain risks, including due to the automation factor.

“And vice versa, everything that is intellectually complex will be very cool and prosper very much, because someone has to control robots, create them, write algorithms, approaches for them - this is where the involvement of qualified specialists will be required,” he added.

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Georgy Ostapkovich also expressed the opinion that human knowledge in the field of economics and jurisprudence will always be needed, the only thing that may change in the future is their functionality.

“At the same time, professions that will gain particular popularity will be related to big data - they are information technology specialists who own an information resource, who can, for example, draw up long-term strategic plans,” the expert concluded.