Russia compensates for a significant shortage of doctors and teachers by importing cheap labor - intelligence
Kyiv • UNN
Russia is experiencing a significant shortage of doctors and teachers, but instead of developing qualified personnel, the authorities are relying on cheap labor. The country is increasing quotas for labor migrants and simplifying requirements for medical personnel, allowing paramedics to perform the functions of doctors.
Despite the "chronic" shortage of doctors and teachers, the Russian authorities demonstrate that the focus is not on the development of highly qualified personnel, but on cheap labor and administrative control, UNN reports with reference to the Foreign Intelligence Service.
Details
According to intelligence data, the average salary of a doctor in Russia is 87,012 rubles. At the same time, the country is experiencing a shortage of about 23.3 thousand doctors and 63.6 thousand mid-level medical personnel. In rural areas, the situation is critical – half of the staff is missing.
In response, the authorities allowed paramedics and midwives without higher education to perform the functions of doctors. In parallel, the demand for rotational work is growing: if in 2024 the number of vacancies for rotational medical workers was less than 1.5 thousand, then in the first eight months of 2025 it increased to 3.4 thousand.
Against this background, the labor market demonstrates other priorities. In the third quarter of 2025, goods sorters without experience were offered an average of 155,539 rubles per month – almost twice as much as doctors. This indicates that the system stimulates unskilled labor, while professions requiring long training remain undervalued. An additional signal is the government's plans to increase the quota for labor migrants to 279 thousand people in 2026, which is 20% more than this year. The main countries supplying labor will be India, China, Malaysia, Bangladesh, and African countries. Thus, the shortage of personnel in key areas is compensated not by investments in its own education system, but by the import of cheap labor.
The intelligence agency added that educational policy also shows a shift in focus. Starting next year, it will be more difficult for Russian schoolchildren to enter universities: the Ministry of Education is raising the minimum scores in six subjects at once. For most graduates, this will mean a choice between vocational schools, factory work, or military service. In parallel, the number of "advisers on upbringing" (propagandists) in schools will double to 60 thousand people, while the number of teachers from 2020 to 2025 decreased by 20 thousand, and the total shortage of teachers is estimated at 600 thousand.
All these trends form a model in which highly qualified specialists become redundant. The Russian economy is increasingly focused on unskilled labor, the import of migrants, and ideological control in schools, while professions requiring knowledge and experience turn out to be unclaimed in modern Russia.