Demand for forestry workers in Karelia has increased by 70%

Analysts at the service for selecting vacancies and employees HeadHunter report that the demand for workers in the forestry industry of Karelia has increased by 70% over the year. This makes the republic one of the leaders among the regions of the Northwestern Federal District: in the federal district as a whole, the need for new personnel increased by 33% compared to the beginning of 2023. There are currently more than 4,300 job openings at local companies. Against this background, the unemployment rate in Karelia has reached a historical low of 0.7%.

In absolute terms, the largest number of new vacancies appeared in companies from the Vologda region (+33%), St. Petersburg (+37%) and Komi (+50%). The highest relative indicators of demand for forest industry workers were shown by the Republic of Karelia, as well as the Leningrad, Novgorod and Kaliningrad regions. In the country as a whole, the demand for forest industry workers increased by 57% over the year. Customer service managers, drivers, and warehouse employees are especially in demand.

Olga Kalyuzhnaya, President of the Russian Timber Association: “The demand for personnel in the timber industry is growing, even despite the decline in production of timber products in certain regions. We need both laborers for logging and high-level specialists who know the new logistics routes of MENA and Southeast Asia, and engineers to work with equipment from new suppliers. According to the Expert Advisory Council for the Forestry Complex, the industry is short of over 34,000 employees.”.

In addition, according to the People in Numbers service, the Karelian Segezha Group was among the leaders in the country in the first quarter of 2024 in terms of the number of vacancies related to professions in the forest industry, repair and woodworking.

Segezha Group and other major forest industry employers have joined in resolving personnel issues. Thus, within the framework of the federal project “Professionality”, on April 17, 2024, a partnership agreement was signed between the Sokol Forestry College, the Education Committee of the Vologda Region and the companies Sokol Pulp and Paper Mill JSC, Sokolsky DOK JSC and Sokol SLT LLC (part of Segezha Group). The goal of the joint work is the creation and development of the educational and production cluster “Forest Industry” in the region.