Almost a quarter of Russia's regions experienced a drop in wages. In August, real wages fell year-over-year in 20 out of 85 regions. In the remaining 65 they continued to grow. Businesses are adapting to lower demand by freezing wages, reducing working hours and downtime while keeping employees on staff.
In the Sverdlovsk region, real wages fell by 2.7% due to a decline in metal production. In the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug and the Yamal-Nents Autonomous Okrug the decrease was about 1.5%, in the Crimea - 5.1%, in Sevastopol - 12.8%. At the same time, the average salary does not show the extent of payment delays: in February-September, the employees of the North Kuzbass were not paid more than 650 million rubles.
Real wages grew the fastest in the Khabarovsk Territory - by 14.7%, in the Magdan region - by 14.5% and in Transbaikalia - by 12.8%. In the Republic of Altai the growth was 12%, in Adygea - 8.2%. This dynamic is related to the increase in the minimum wage: with low local salaries, it affects the average more.
Unemployment remained at 2.2% in September, but about 210,000 workers remained unemployed in the second quarter - almost twice as many as two years earlier. Staff retention helps prevent mass layoffs, but people still lose some of their earnings. The central bank sees another problem in employee retention: it prevents the transfer of personnel to branches that need additional workers.