Employment problems are inevitable during an economic crisis. Mass layoffs are already taking place in Russia, although serious unemployment is still some way off. But the average Russian citizen is being paid considerably less than a year ago, and is having to work harder, too.
The same old story
‘Our firm produces analytical reports on the oil market, and problems began to arise as soon as the sanctions started’, says oil website editor Andrei Z. ‘Russian oilmen know that the main thing is bribing the appropriate official. They don’t commission anything from us. Foreign companies know it too, but they are used to monitoring the market as well, so they ask us to run figures. But since the events in Crimea the only clients we have left are a couple of Chinese businesses – the rest have disappeared.
‘At the start of last year there five of us in the office: my boss, me, a secretary, a sales agent and a freelance designer. The designer was first to go, after our print journal closed down. Then the secretary was made redundant and the saleswoman started working from home on a commission basis only. I had to take on the secretary’s role as well as my own and also work from home.’
