In 2016, the ACIG Group of Companies conducted a study of the youth labor market, in which more than 40 largest companies, 35 leading universities and 600 young talents from 47 regions of Russia took part. The previous publication () examined the general situation in the youth labor market.
One of the most important characteristics of the market is the possibility of specialized employment for young talents. For the state, the percentage of people employed in their specialty reflects the efficiency of spending on the education system, for universities - the demand for the knowledge and skills of graduates, for employers - the relevance of their offer for young people and additional market reserves.
As the study showed, the share of those employed in their specialty increases noticeably with age, up to approximately 24 years (the average age of master's degree graduates). The share of unemployed people among young people, on the contrary, is proportionally decreasing. The number of people working outside their specialty is on average constant for all age categories.
“In the first two years, students who can afford not to attend classes and want to earn money first of all, take jobs outside their specialty due to the lack of any experience and knowledge. However, from the 3rd year, employers begin to actively attract them to work and internships, which significantly increases the share of specialized employment. In addition, the ability to find a job is greatly influenced by the structure of the educational process itself: suboptimal study schedules and low tolerance for absences can seriously interfere with getting a qualified job,” explains Alexey Semyannikov, expert at the Methodological and Analytical Center for Change Management Practices of the ACIG Group.
Among working students with a background in the humanities and natural sciences, the majority are employed in their specialty. The situation is different for young people with an engineering and technical profile - the number of people working outside their specialty predominates. At the same time, according to reviews from representatives of educational institutions, almost all students of leading engineering and technical universities are successfully employed in their specialty by the time they graduate. Employers “assess” them based on the results of practical work and internships, starting from the 3rd year.
“Graduates from leading technical universities are in high demand not only in specialized industries, but also in the IT sector, investment banking, business analytics and others. For graduates of universities that do not occupy top positions, the relevant industries offer a limited number of vacancies, as well as low salaries, which also forces them to look for opportunities for self-realization in other areas. That is why among students and graduates of engineering and technical fields, the share of those working in their specialty is the lowest,” comments Tatyana Pavilova, project manager of the “Public Sector” practice and Change Management Practices of the ACIG Group of Companies.
Respondents with a medical profile consider working exclusively in their specialty. This is explained not only by employment opportunities (shortage of personnel in the industry), but also by the specifics of the profession (the importance of informed choice).
An analysis of students’ open responses indicates high motivation to work in their specialty, but there are many obstacles on the way to this goal:
- “They treat young specialists with caution. They are afraid to hire without work experience”;
- "T. j. I’m getting a master’s degree, I need a flexible schedule, which negatively affects my employability”;
- “There is work close to the specialty, but the conditions are very bad. The wages are extremely low."
MOSCOW, August 13 - RIA Novosti. A new study by the Federal State Statistics Service (Rosstat) found that almost 60% of Russians work outside their specialty. Deputy head of Rosstat Konstantin Laikam told Rossiyskaya Gazeta about this, published on Monday.
In an interview with the newspaper, Laikam spoke about a survey of the well-being of Russians on the labor market, which was conducted for the first time by Rosstat.
"We learned a lot. For example, we never had information about how satisfied people are with their work. So, most of all, Russians are satisfied with the work schedule. 75 percent of respondents are quite satisfied with it. Next come: duties performed (68%), distance to work, working conditions (64%), moral satisfaction, job security and professional satisfaction (about 55% each),” Laikam said.
According to him, the main dissatisfaction among Russians is wages. Only every fourth person is satisfied with her. The study also revealed a direct dependence of salaries on the level of education. “The higher the level of education, the more professional and moral satisfaction a person has, the more satisfied he is with his salary,” the expert said in an interview.
Laikam noted that 87% of the working population (a little more in the city, less in the village) have a profession confirmed by a diploma or other document. At the same time, almost 60% of Russians work outside their specialty.
“The lower the level of education, the more people work outside their specialty. The failing groups are those with basic general (8-9 grades) and secondary general education. There is a huge discrepancy between work and specialty - 72% and 67%, respectively. In these same groups, the most low level of retraining and retraining,” the publication quotes the official as saying.
The survey results also revealed a serious gap between the formal and informal sectors of the economy. In the first, there is complete correspondence between work and specialty - 45%, in the second - only 27%, and the worst situation is for those who are engaged in family business. There, only 12% found their acquired profession useful.
“It is important that we highlighted and measured this problem. By the way, women more often (42%) than men (38%) have a job that fully corresponds to the specialty they received. However, men, if their work does not correspond to their specialty, are more often ready to retrain,” - added the service representative.
In 2011, it was decided that starting from 2016, Rosstat would conduct a comprehensive survey of graduates of vocational educational institutions every five years to determine their employment. Pilot studies show that 80% of graduates are employed in the first year after graduation, 9% cannot find a job at all, and 33% cannot find a job in their specialty.
Are the specialties of MSTU graduates in demand? N.E. Bauman? Do graduates work in their specialty? How much do they earn? What factors influence their income? - these are the questions to which finding answers was the point of the research we began. And we started from the Faculty of Radio Electronics and Laser Technology.
The purpose of the study is not to please or upset anyone, not to humiliate engineering activity or, on the contrary, to elevate it, the goal is to reflect reality as best as possible, to provide real information to both students and graduates who participated in the survey, so that they can adequately react, plan, arrange priorities. And the data turned out, in my opinion, very interesting.
Initially, the material was for the magazine “Engineer” and you can view its electronic version, but it was not possible to fit everything into one page, so see the more detailed version below.
With the help of VK, more than 500 graduates of the Faculty of Radio Electronics and Laser Engineering of Moscow State Technical University were surveyed. N.E. Bauman, such results were achieved only thanks to our perseverance. Although the majority gladly participated in the survey: many expressed their thoughts and wishes, and showed interest in the results. Thank you, I really hope that the results will be useful to you.
Initially, issues from 2005 to 2014 were surveyed, but since from 2005 to 2008 people responded less willingly and the required percentage of respondents (percentage of the entire issue) did not reach, this data was not taken into account. In general, their income picture was not very different from the 2009-2010 editions, but again, there were not enough respondents to be able to say this with confidence.
The first question is: what specialties of the Faculty of Human Resources are in demand? And are they in demand at all? Do graduates work in their specialty?
Let me remind you that there are 3 graduating departments at RL:
RL-1 – Radio-electronic systems and devices
RL-2 – Laser and optical-electronic systems
RL-6 – Instrument making technologies
Let me start with the fact that the majority (60%) of all departments work as engineers:
But they do not necessarily work in their specialty, the percentage of those working in their specialty (to the total number of surveyed graduates) by department:
However, this is still a very general picture; below is a graph showing the change in the percentage of people working in their specialty (in relation to the total number of graduates) depending on the year of graduation. Color on the chart: RL-1, RL-2, RL-6.
It can be seen that the most popular specialty is the specialty of the RL-1 department, graduates of RL-6 work much less in their specialty, but the specialty of the RL-2 department is becoming more and more in demand among children. Yes, the last graph used graduate survey data from 2006-2008 to increase the time range and, again, should be viewed with great doubt. However, even since 2009, the percentage of RL-2 graduates working in their specialty has been growing. Also, many with RL-2 work in the RL-1 specialty, but they were not taken into account here.
And one more nuance - in this case, it is taken into account that a person could leave an engineering position for a management position, but still remain within the specialty. That is why it is pointless to build the same graph in order to also look at the percentage of working engineers: for older releases it will naturally be lower, because people rise in position to become managers.
Second question: How much does a graduate earn?
First, let's take a look at the specialty:
The distributions, their averages and variances are clearly visible. In the first two years after graduation, the average income is about 60 thousand rubles, and the spread among graduates is very small; then the average income grows, but the spread also increases. And when even more time passes, a greater and greater division can be seen: some have extremely high incomes, some have below average. A whole book has been written about this. It should be mentioned that those who do not work full-time are also taken into account: they study (second education) or look after a child (many wrote as a profession - mother:) The income of such people is small - it is either a scholarship / grant, or a part-time job, work for a share rates. And there was only one person who did not work because he could not find a job - unfortunately, he did not indicate an e-mail so that the reason could be found out.
Note: Alumni earnings are pre-tax
Now the most interesting question is: what affects a graduate’s income?
And there really is a lot of interesting things here. Taking all the parameters that were obtained from the survey, we built a multivariate regression model. The proportion of variance in the dependent variable (income) was explained by the model by 43% (R-squared = 43%), so many factors were out of bounds, but nevertheless it is interesting to look at the results.
Below, in the form of a test, you can estimate what average income you can expect under certain conditions (all this is based on the coefficients of the regression model).
So, let’s imagine that initially we expect an income of 130,137 rubles.
1. If we graduated from RL-1, then there will be no changes. If RL-2, then 1,645 rubles should be subtracted from this income, and if RL-6, then 9,850 rubles should be subtracted.
2. If we work in consulting, we should deduct 50,981 ₽, if in finance, deduct 45,358 ₽, if in sales, subtract 31,106 ₽. If we work as an engineer, deduct 64,122 ₽, if we work as a product/project manager, subtract 46,405 ₽, if as a manager, leave it like that. If something else (an artist, a designer, a hunter, a fashion designer, an accountant - there were a lot of unique examples during the survey, so everything is generalized) - it is worth deducting 74,596 rubles.
3. If we work in a large company, then we do not change the amount, but if we work in a small company, we will have to deduct 2,926 rubles. If we work for ourselves: as a freelancer or we have our own business, we add 22,941 ₽.
4. If we only graduated 1-2 years ago, then we can safely deduct 31,703 ₽, if 3-4 years have passed since graduation, we will subtract 6,545 ₽. And we don’t change anything if more than 5 years have passed.
5. For guys - a good increase of 19,862 ₽ (need to be added), girls don’t change anything. (Let me remind you that many girls work freelance while caring for a child)
6. Those who have an average score during their studies of more than 4.3 receive an additional 7,099 ₽ (must be added), and if not, then no change.
7. A second higher education also gives a good bonus of 9,129 ₽ (must be added), and if not, then no changes.
8. If you worked during training, then you will have a not very big advantage over others in the form of 1,665 rubles (must be added), and if not, then no changes.
9. If you were hired for your skills, you passed a selection process (whether it was a series of interviews or recruiting from the company), and did not get a job “through connections,” then your income will increase by 18,540 rubles. And if you did get a job through an acquaintance, then no changes.
For example: you are a guy, you graduated from RL-1 3 years ago with honors, you work as an engineer and got a job yourself, you work in a large company, but you did not work during your studies and you do not have a second higher education, then your expected income will be 104,971 ₽ (130.137 - 64.122 - 6.545 + 19.862 + 7.099 + 18.540).
But that’s okay, it’s much more interesting to just feel the influence of these factors, three things surprised me:
Firstly, this is the destruction of the stereotype about enterprising people who study poorly, but then succeed. High performance during training has been shown to significantly influence future success, especially among working engineers, which is logical, because engineering education. You can read more about this in.
Secondly, another stereotype is crumbling - “I got a job through connections for a big salary”; in fact, the picture is completely different: the market harshly evaluates people and those who are too lazy to get a job themselves, flattered by an offer of employment through friends, get lower. Business\Market is not ready to pay for laziness.
Moreover, in the model, all coefficients are calculated with the mutual influence of each other, but if we simply take the average salary of someone who got a job through an acquaintance (66 thousand rubles) and through selection (105 thousand rubles) - then the difference is even greater. But you need to understand that this is an average and all other parameters are not taken into account.
Thirdly, it is very interesting that working while studying does not provide as great an advantage as it might seem. In my opinion, the logic here is this: we have a limited supply of energy and time, and we can spend it either on training or on work. It’s good if the work was in your specialty, but even so, it doesn’t provide much gain in the future. Ordinary graduates are quickly catching up with those who, in addition to studying, also worked, because basic, fundamental knowledge has been acquired, and adding some new practical skills and knowledge to it, learning something, is easier.
That's all. Surveys of other specialties and universities will appear periodically. If something in your opinion could be done better, write in the comments.
To follow this research, you can subscribe.
P.S. Finally, I would like to show two more diagrams, which are certainly encouraging:
This summer, a million university graduates, having defended their diplomas, entered the labor market. How will the domestic economy accept them? Surveys show that finding a job for a university graduate is a headache for the family, and in important matters one has to rely not on a diploma, but mainly on connections and acquaintances. Official statistics confirm that most young professionals have difficulty finding work. According to the Ministry of Education, for example, every fourth university graduate is not employed, and those who are lucky enough to find a job, the authorities are trying to push them into freelancing in order to avoid paying taxes and pension contributions. But that’s not all: departmental reporting does not include those who completed training on a paid basis. This means that there are actually even more unemployed young specialists, and with all the talk about the shortage of personnel, the native economy simply does not need them. "Ogonyok" tried to figure out the problem.
In 2016, Rosstat conducted a sample survey of the employment of graduates of educational organizations. Here are his calculations: 139.6 thousand young people aged 20-24 years (that is, those who have just graduated from universities) are unemployed. And it turns out that unemployment among university graduates in 2015 is 5 times higher than in the country as a whole (5 percent). There is one more figure: among graduates aged 25 to 29 years (that is, previous graduates), Rosstat counted 152.1 thousand unemployed. The problem, therefore, is not only with the “fresh influx”, but also with the fact that before it - two graduation “waves” give a total of 291.7 thousand young people with diplomas and without work.
Meanwhile, the observation, as Rosstat points out, is “selective.” Should this data be trusted? Experts say: it’s worth it because they correlate with others.
This can be recognized as one of the paradoxes of the current situation: graduates who studied in paid places find themselves at the most disadvantageous position. For these students, parents have been paying universities a lot of money for years (up to 500 thousand rubles a year), but no one is interested in their fate, they are not taken into account anywhere, and both universities and the ministry forget about them as soon as they sign their diplomas. Although the high salaries of teachers are precisely from additional income from students “on a contractual basis”, and universities should bear them in their hands: payers give money no less than the budget...
“The conflict between graduates and employers is growing in the Russian labor market,” says Elena Avraamova, head of the social development research laboratory at the Institute of Social Analysis and Forecasting of the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration. “Employers significantly underestimate wages during the first employment. Therefore, there is a high turnover among young people; few people stay in one place for three years or more. In a crisis, employers immediately offer young people informal employment, I would say, they simply push them into freelancing, on fixed-term contracts, or even without a contract at all, paying for part-time work in cash, without a social package, without insurance and pension contributions.
In fact, many guys begin their professional lives under obviously worse conditions, outside the framework of normal labor relations. Surveys show that finding employment for a young specialist is a big problem for families. And the main thing in finding a job is the necessary connections and acquaintances. Elena Avraamova confirms: “Today in Russia, the most important factor when finding a first job is the applicant’s useful connections. Yes, a diploma is important, but in the first place is acquaintance. And not only when applying for “warm” places - for any: the employer does not like to hire a young specialist, unless he is recommended by someone he knows.”
Irina Abankina, director of the Institute for Educational Development at the National Research University Higher School of Economics, says that in our labor market there are, in fact, “closed sectors that are extremely difficult for random people to get into.” First of all, medicine: as a rule, one of the parents (or a relative from the older generation) of a medical university graduate worked in this field. Next - architecture, creative professions: artists, performers, musicians. The oil and gas sector is very specific. For example, Gubkin University can boast of an 80 percent employment rate for graduates, but if you don’t take into account shift workers, then “strangers don’t go there.” A similar situation is beginning to emerge in the construction and metalworking industries.
The state of our labor market, says Irina Abankina, is alarming. It is developing completely differently from the models developed in developed economies. There, the cost of labor is determined by the level of education, and not just the experience of the worker. There, graduates with high grades receive the best offers from employers. There, the competitiveness of personnel depends on constant professional development and on the employee’s ability to adapt to new requirements.
We don’t have any of this - our economy does not require this type of worker. Although the principle “the best students choose the best places” was once in effect - in the Soviet graduate distribution system: excellent students were the first to appear on the distribution committee. But the old system was abolished, and in the new one we have what we have.
Nikolai M. graduated from the Physics Department of Moscow State University in 2015 with a prestigious modern specialty - "mathematical modeling and computer science" with a high average score. I rested for two months, then started getting a job. “I wanted to do programming,” says Nikolai, “and I was looking for an interesting job. Well, so that the salary would be 55-60 thousand rubles.” For such a specialty this is the average salary. Kolya is a Muscovite. Three months of interviews did not yield results: there is a great demand for IT specialists, but employers need work experience, not a prestigious diploma with good grades; as a rule, they do not pay attention to them. It is unknown how much longer I would have suffered, but I was lucky: my mother’s acquaintance offered me a job in his company with a profile in Internet network programming. True, after a year and a half I had to change jobs.
Aleksey K., a 2015 graduate of the history department of Moscow State University, was less fortunate: he says that ten percent of his graduates were able to find work in their specialty (that is, historical science), while the rest did as best they could. Some people make money by tutoring, some have become realtors, there are girls who have gone into the modeling business. Alexey himself, a Muscovite, was hired by his relatives to work on television in a large regional center. And he considers it luck...
According to the European Statistical Agency (Eurostat), in 2016 in the European Union, the employment rate of young people aged 20-34 within three years of receiving higher education was 80.8%. Moreover, male graduates find employment easier - among them the employment rate is 83.3%, while among women it is 78.8%. The highest proportion of employed graduates in the EU was recorded in Malta (96%), Germany (92.6%) and the Netherlands (92.3%), the lowest in Greece (53.6%), Italy (57.7). %) and Spain (70.7%).
According to Eurostat, in May 2017 there were 19.1 million unemployed in 28 EU countries (2.1 million less than in May 2016). Among EU residents under 25 years of age, there were 3.8 million people (585 thousand less than a year earlier). The lowest proportion of unemployed youth is recorded in Germany (6.7%), the Netherlands (9%) and the Czech Republic (9.2%), while the highest is in Greece (45.5%, data for April), Spain (38.6%) and Italy (37%). For comparison, according to the OECD, in Japan in 2016 the share of unemployed among residents under 25 years of age was 5.2%, in the USA - 10.4%, in Australia - 12.7%, in Canada - 13.1%.
The most unfavorable regions for youth employment in 2016 were the Middle East and North Africa. There, according to the World Bank, unemployment among citizens 15-24 years old averaged 29.7%. In the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean there was an average of 16.9% of unemployed young people, in Southeast Asia - 10.5%. Among the record-breaking countries in which more than half of young people are unemployed are Bosnia and Herzegovina (67.6%), Swaziland (52.8%), South Africa (52.3%), French Polynesia (50.8%) and Oman (50.8%).
This summer, about a million young specialists graduated from Russian universities. Statistics show that even a diploma from a prestigious university does not guarantee employment, and many graduates will face difficulties finding work. Kommersant writes about why employers are not always happy with young specialists.
According to the Ministry of Education and Science, which annually monitors the employment of graduates, of those who received diplomas in 2015, 74-75% found work. Graduates of the national research universities (NRU) Baumansky, Gubkinsky, and MEPhI were most successful in finding a job - 81.54%. Those who graduated from Moscow State University or St. Petersburg State University were less in demand - 74.58%. MGIMO graduates were employed in 53.17% of cases, and their average earnings were 47,760 rubles. The publication notes that we are talking about universities that are considered prestigious: high requirements for applicants, expensive preparation for admission and expensive tuition. According to Rosstat, unemployment among graduates of 2015 is five times higher than in the country as a whole.
The publication notes that those who received higher education for a fee find themselves in a paradoxically disadvantageous situation. Official statistics take into account state employees, but the state forgets about those who paid for education after they received their diploma. Experts interviewed by Kommersant draw attention to the fact that many yesterday’s students do not work in their specialty or are not officially employed.
Elena Avraamova
Head of the Laboratory for Social Development Research, Institute of Social Analysis and Forecasting, RANEPA
“The conflict between graduates and employers is growing in the Russian labor market. Employers significantly reduce wages when hiring people for the first time. Therefore, there is a high turnover among young people; few people stay in one place for three years or more. In a crisis, employers immediately offer young people informal employment, I would say, they simply push them into freelancing, on fixed-term contracts, or even without a contract at all, paying for part-time work in cash, without a social package, without insurance and pension contributions.”
Avraamova notes that connections are of paramount importance when searching for a job. This is not just about “warm places”: almost every employer is more willing to hire a specialist if someone has recommended him.
A separate problem is the attitude of business towards graduates. In the West, companies are accustomed to investing in future specialists, but for Russia this approach remains exotic.
