Staffing shortfall: Russian stores lack 520,000 employees
The shortage of retail workers reached 520,000 in November, which is about 6% of the total staff shortage, market sources told Izvestia. The All-Russian Research Institute of Labor noted that this area is characterized by high staff turnover and a low threshold for entry into the profession. Therefore, there is no reason to talk about a critical shortage in general, although this does not exclude local difficulties for individual companies. Among the reasons are the transfer of people to other jobs, the development of marketplaces and delivery services, as well as a relatively low salary compared to the national average. To retain employees, organizations are forced to continue the salary race. Hiring difficulties make it difficult to invest, prevent new stores from opening, and increases the burden on existing staff.
Why is there a big shortage of staff in retail
In November 2026, the Russian retail need for staff is estimated at just over 9.3 million people, with over 8.8 million employees working in the industry, Ecopsi consulting company estimates (Izvestia has the data). According to the authors of the study, the shortage of personnel in the industry has reached 520 thousand employees, which is 5.6% of the total demand.
The problem was also confirmed by recruiters. According to Alexey Chikhachev, managing partner of A2 HR consulting agency, the shortage in retail trade now amounts to 500-550 thousand people.
The high demand is also evident in the number of open vacancies. According to the study hh.ru and the Association of Omnichannel Retail Companies (ACORT), in the first half of 2026, retailers posted more than 478,000 job offers on this website, said Stanislav Bogdanov, chairman of ACORT.
In total, since the beginning of the year, the site has hosted more than 920 thousand open positions in the retail sector, the press service said. hh.ru . By the end of October, 2.4 resumes accounted for one such vacancy, which indicates a pronounced shortage of specialists.
The All-Russian Research Institute of Labor, in turn, told Izvestia that the situation could not be called critical. According to Rosstat, in 2024, large and medium-sized trade organizations announced the need for 344 thousand employees. The number of vacancies on job portals was lower, ranging from 93,000 to 200,000.
High staff turnover and a low threshold for entry into the profession are typical for trade. Thus, statistical and administrative data do not confirm the existence of an industry shortage of employees. Employers are indeed facing the fact that job seekers have become more selective, but competition for staff has increased everywhere in recent years and is not considered a feature of trade, the All-Russian Research Institute of Labor clarified.
At the same time, a decrease in the overall demand for trade does not mean the complete elimination of local deficits — the lack of an offer at the request of individual companies due to the low level of payment offered, poor working conditions or other factors, the press service added.
There is a particularly acute shortage of sellers, cashiers, specialists in the distribution and acceptance of goods, said the independent director, an expert in personnel management at the Institute of Growth Economics. Stolypina Tatiana Kozhevnikova.
The situation may worsen in the next few years, the market warns. Ecopsi estimates that by 2030, the shortage of retail staff will grow to 1.48 million people. The biggest shortage of sellers will be (990 thousand employees).
Trade is one of the industries that is changing most actively under the influence of technology: marketplaces and online stores are expanding, and automation is being introduced in regular supermarkets, from self—service cash registers to smart scales, the All-Russian Research Institute of Labor said.
The forecast of 1.5 million vacancies by 2030 is fair only if the organization of trade, the level of automation and the technologies used remain the same, they noted. Also, the general situation on the labor market and the distribution of workers between industries and professional groups will not change. According to the organization's estimates, taking into account technological changes, by 2030 the number of people employed in trade may not increase, but decrease due to increased labor productivity, primarily among the largest category of sales workers.
The main reason for the increased staff shortage will be a reduction in the supply of labor. Over the period from 2025 to 2030, the retail demand for personnel, which is already large, will increase by 3.3%, or by 313 thousand people. At the same time, the available number of employees will decrease by 5.5%, or by 486 thousand, the consulting company estimates.
An additional factor is high staff turnover. On average, about 64% of employees change in trading companies per year. They mostly switch between different stores. At the same time, about 5% of workers annually move to other industries, the authors of the study noted.
Most line positions in retail do not require special education or professional training: after a few days of training, a novice can already work as a cashier or a sales floor operator. The low entry threshold makes the industry accessible to a wide range of applicants, however, many consider such work not as a long-term career, but as an opportunity to earn quickly, explained Tatiana Kozhevnikova.
Today, the supermarket's main competitor in the fight for staff may not be a neighboring store, but a marketplace warehouse or a delivery service, emphasized Alexey Chikhachev from the HR agency. Employees are moving into logistics, courier services, and production positions. In retail, you have to spend 10-12 hours on your feet, work on weekends, and constantly communicate with customers. With comparable earnings, alternative employment options may be more attractive due to more flexible schedules and working conditions, the expert added.
In addition, retail trade is noticeably inferior to other areas in terms of payment. In 2025, the average nominal salary in retail was 81.7 thousand rubles against 111.4 thousand for all industries in Russia. Thus, the gap was more than a quarter.
How to reduce the shortage of personnel in trade
The shortage of personnel results in serious financial losses for retail companies. If there are not enough employees at the reception of products, the time for unloading trucks and placing goods on temperature-controlled shelves increases, said Tatiana Kozhevnikova from the Institute of Growth Economics. This increases the risk of spoilage and loss of expensive products. This is especially true for vegetables, fruits, berries, as well as ultra-fresh goods (pastries, meat, fish, dairy products, ready meals).
High turnover also makes it difficult to maintain the quality of service. New employees still do not have time to study the product range and work processes, which is why they often make mistakes and then leave, the expert added. We have to hire and train the inexperienced again. As a result, companies are forced to constantly increase the cost of recruiting and training staff, said Tatiana Kozhevnikova.
In order to retain people, companies are forced to raise salaries, which increases business costs and increases inflationary pressures. According to the Ministry of Economic Development, as of October 26, the annual price increase was 7.11%.
Staffing shortages also increase the burden on existing staff. In addition, additional labor costs limit the ability of retailers to open new stores and invest in development. According to Rosstat, business investments in fixed assets decreased by almost 10% in the first half of the year.
By 2030, Russian retail will have to change its approach to working with employees, Alexey Chikhachev believes. It's just that hiring more people is becoming more difficult due to the shortage of candidates. Therefore, companies will actively implement technologies, reduce the number of repetitive operations and distribute more tasks among existing employees.
However, it will not be possible to completely replace the workforce: customers still need consultants, and stores need personnel to control quality, accept goods, and solve non-standard tasks. The shortage will remain a long-term problem, the expert emphasized. Some networks will spend more and more money on finding new employees, while others will try to use their existing staff more efficiently. As a result, companies that can not only offer decent salaries, but also create conditions in which people will want to work for years will gain an advantage.
In general, the fastest way to reduce staff shortages is not to increase recruitment costs, but to reduce turnover, Alexey Chikhachev believes. To do this, organizations can review work schedules, make the bonus system clearer, organize work closer to their place of residence, and introduce additional payments for difficult shifts. Referral programs, part-time employment, and employee recruitment during peak hours also help.
Hiring and adapting a new employee costs the company five times more than retaining an existing one, explained Tatiana Kozhevnikova. Therefore, it is important to create conditions under which people will want to stay in the industry, even if they initially joined it by accident. To do this, it is necessary to invest in staff training and development, she added.
Another way to fill the shortage is to attract foreigners, especially in large cities and to line positions, Alexey Chikhachev continued. However, the opportunities here are limited by migration requirements, regional prohibitions and the established proportion of foreign employees in certain types of trade. In addition, additional costs are needed for their adaptation. Therefore, foreign workers can only become an additional source of personnel, but they will not solve the problem of high turnover and unattractive working conditions.
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