The Moscow Times reports that Russia's workforce lost 1.3M young people last year. If it invites the question "I wonder where they went?" the answer is the obvious one: they're fled or buried.
Working citizens under the age of 35 in the Russian labor market totaled 21.5 million in December, accounting for 29.8% of the country's workforce of 72.1 million. That marks the lowest share of young workers since the start of data collection in 2006. According to Finexpertiza, the trend could date back to the early 1990s, as Russia's population has aged rapidly since the Soviet collapse. With Russia's unemployment rates standing at a record low, the decrease in young workers could be the result of many of them taking jobs in the so-called "gray economy" — or last year's mass exodus of Russians over the war in Ukraine.
