The publication “Important Histories” published a study on the shortage of personnel in the Russian military-industrial complex. Among the ten positions for which employers who clearly declare their ties to the Ministry of Defense are in great need of people are fitter, CNC machine operator, production engineer, constructor and turner.
We are also looking for sales managers, economists and other office workers. Kalashnikov Concern in Izhevsk (produces firearms, cutters, ammunition), as well as St. Petersburg Special Technological Center (STC) (produces Orlan 10 drones), Klimov (produces engines for aviation) and Kingisep Machine Plant (produces engines for armored vehicles, military ships) need workers the most.
As “Important Stories” found out, employers are ready to pay 30-40 thousand to the employees of the companies that fulfill the orders of the Ministry of Defense of Russia. rubles (315-421 euros) more than in civil production companies. Higher wages lead to higher costs for businesses and higher product prices, which puts pressure on the economy as a whole.
At the time of writing this article, Klimov ODK had 202 actual vacancies on HeadHunter account, STC had 198 actual vacancies, Kingisepe plant -180, Kalashnikov plant had more than 600 vacancies. However, Sever.reality’s correspondent found out that big money is still not enough motivation for employees.
“We are a legitimate target of the Ukrainian armed forces”
The Kingisep Machine Plant (KMZ), which has branches in St. Petersburg and the Leningrad region, supplies the Russian military with diesel engines for tanks and infantry fighting vehicles, as well as gunboats. Salaries offered in most vacancies start from 100 thousand. rubles (1052 euros). But there is still a shortage of people.
“We are already teaching women to work with CNC machines,” says a KMZ employee who wished to remain anonymous. – Of course, there is a high turnover of employees, but that has always been the case. Management is concerned about our protection. There are many branches, it is of course expensive, but we are still looking for opportunities.” At the same time, military industrial companies are now booming, they are expanding endlessly because they are working for the war in Ukraine.
“We are now working in several shifts in several locations and expanding production. We recently purchased a device that will help us run tests faster. We are always in need of new employees. The owner is not stingy: our salaries are among the highest in the market, but there is always a nuance: we are a legitimate target of the Ukrainian armed forces,” says a KMZ employee. According to him, there was a meeting at the factory where it was said that one of the drones shot down over the Leningrad region in March may have targeted one of the KMZ facilities.
The interviewee mentions that he is worried about the fact that all information: maps, locations of factories, photos of territories, what is produced where is published on the website.
An STC manager says several colleagues have walked off the job after a drone crashed into a residential building in St. Petersburg. “Many of our employees think it just didn’t make it to our factory.” That house is near our area. A lot of people got scared after that. I don’t know about the workers, but my office colleagues decided that although the pay is good, the whole head is better. Six people left their jobs in less than a week,” said the interviewer.
So far, the security measures are as follows: you cannot bring your own laptops, there are checks at the entrance and exit, but all this was before the attacks. An electronic warfare dome and even anti-aircraft defenses are now being considered. However, the dome can hinder testing, so the solution to the problem has not yet been found, and people are leaving the workplace, albeit not en masse.
“Attacks do their job – intimidation works,” says the interviewer.
According to him, employees are shown achievements at the front, and letters of thanks from soldiers are often read.
Free codes from alcoholism
Companies come up with additional conditions to keep people. For example, if you bring a friend to KMZ, you will receive 10 thousand. rubles (105 euros). And if you cover your car with factory symbols, you will be paid 2 thousand. rubles (21 euros) per month. The factory has signed a contract with a clinic that treats alcoholism and drug addiction, so it codes employees against alcoholism free of charge. In the words of the interviewee, there was an epidemic in one factory: a person receives a salary and disappears – gets drunk for a week and returns when the money runs out.
KMZ has a large number of Uzbek employees, but they raise questions for the police and the Federal Migration Service – production sites are often raided. A lot of people quit their jobs because of it. “Apparently, the police and the service want the Uzbeks to be paid.” Recently, they even landed a helicopter to catch the workers, brought in police cars and put on a mask show. We don’t allow some workers to leave the factory during the shift so that they don’t get caught in the middle of the working day,” says a person familiar with the situation.
An employee of STC, a test engineer, says that the company wants to attract young people first. Students come to do internships, but it’s good if out of five people the company spends time with, one stays.
“One asked if they were shelling Odesa with our drones. We replied that we have reconnaissance-strike “Erels” and we don’t bomb cities with them, because it is too expensive. He was not satisfied with the answer and the student left,” says the STC employee.
Waiting for the war to end
There is an even greater shortage of workers in civilian machinery manufacturing companies. “We are actively recruiting employees, we started advertising in the subway, we created a separate website with job vacancies, but there is still a shortage of people. There is a shortage of engineers. There is also a shortage of workers. We train students, but their workload is not the same as that of employees,” says the manager of a company that manufactures on-board equipment for marine and river vessels.
The director of a St. Petersburg company that specializes in the development and operation of civilian drones says they exist only because of government subsidies. Before the war, drones were actively used for peaceful purposes: monitoring fires, photographing the territory, searching for unauthorized dumps. Drone flights are now banned in many regions, including St. Petersburg.
“The state has created a big problem. People do not come to us not even for money, but because there is no opportunity to climb the career ladder and improve in the professional field.
The government has come up with a national project related to unmanned aerial systems that feeds us but makes us dependent. In fact, businesses do not buy services from us, such as aerial surveillance, because of the no-fly zone. Only state institutions can do that.
But the demand is low, we cannot plan anything, we cannot expand production and modernize it.
Drone developers who are fans of their work turn to the military field also because they can invent new things, test them, and grow professionally. In order to conduct tests, we have to go somewhere to Yakutia, but can you imagine how much it costs?” asks the director.
In the night from 2024 January 18 to the 19th Ukrainian drones reached St. Petersburg for the first time. One of them flew to an oil terminal. Later, a drone attacked the Novatek oil terminal in the port of Ust Luga in the Leningrad Region. After this incident, reports of drone interceptions over the region became more frequent. The most famous in all senses was the drone strike on a residential building on Piskarevsky Prospect in St. Petersburg. No one was hurt then. However, due to the fact that STC is located nearby, some townspeople suspected that this particular company was the target of the attack.
Between February and March, a total of at least ten oil refineries were attacked in Russia. Later, attacks on oil refineries stopped, and Ukraine began attacking other companies operating in Russia.
in 2024 The Russian government will spend 14 trillion on defense and security bodies. rubles (147.3 billion euros) – this is 39 percent. of all budget expenditures. Of them, 10.8 trillion rubles (113.6 billion euros), i.e. almost a third of the expenses, will go to national defense. Compared to 2023, national defense spending will increase by almost 70 percent. In pre-war 2021 The Kremlin’s defense expenditures amounted to 3.6 trillion. rubles (3.68 billion euros). On average, the Russian Federation spends about 300 million per day on the war with Ukraine. dollars.
* Exchange rate – according to “exchange.lt”.
