The St. Petersburg Times
Issue #1434 (98), Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Like many other sectors of the economy, the manufacturing industry currently faces the threat of job losses and wage cuts as production rates fall. Local recruitment experts are divided on the general outlook for personnel in the manufacturing sphere for next year. Some maintain that mass job losses are not expected in the manufacturing sector of St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Oblast in the near future.

«According to our information, there are no large-scale personnel cuts taking place at present. As previously, there is a shortage of qualified specialists, and I can say with confidence that the situation is unlikely to change in the future,» said Alexandra Evseeva, branch manager at THI Selection in St. Petersburg.

Other recruitment companies, however, said that they had already seen an inflow of candidates from various manufacturing companies.

«Some employees were laid off, and others decided to leave their jobs themselves as the result of decreased production volumes and consequently, lower salaries,» said Irina Beregovaya, consultant at Consort Petersburg.

While there is little sign at this stage of the crisis forcing production enterprises to close down entirely, many plants are reducing their output.

«Some manufacturing enterprises in the Leningrad Oblast are laying off staff in connection with the fact that production capacities are being reduced due to problems with the delivery of raw materials, so for example instead of 10 production lines, only six will remain in operation, and staff cuts have been made accordingly,» said Ludmila Gordeeva, another consultant at Consort Petersburg.

Beregovaya said that aside from the current economic crisis, one of the main personnel problems for manufacturing enterprises was often their location.

«Even when there is not enough work available, not every candidate will agree to consider a job offer if the place of work is located to the north of the city and oblast and the candidate lives in the south,» she said.

Evseeva said that reports of factory closures as a result of the crisis had been exaggerated in the media. «Many manufacturing enterprises have so-called ‘shutdown? periods in order to clean and repair the equipment — this is standard practice. Traditionally, this happens during the New Year holidays. In the crisis situation, the media have paid too much attention to this fact, linking it directly to more global problems.»

Last week, Ford announced that its plant in Shushary, just outside St. Petersburg, would close for longer than usual over the New Year holidays as the result of decreasing demand.

«According to our forecasts, qualified manufacturing specialists will be minimally affected by the crisis,» said Evseeva.

Manufacturing employees are not defenseless in the face of salary decreases and job cuts, as more and more belong to trade unions whose task it is to protect their rights.

«According to data from the Federation of Trade Unions for St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Oblast, 800,000 people belong to a trade union,» said Elena Skalon, training and development manager at THI Selection. «The priorities for trade unions are ensuring the provision of reasonable wages, a well-equipped working area, normal working conditions and holiday entitlement and reliable social guarantees.»

By Shura Collinson

Staff Writer