Russia faces long-time worries, as the number of professionals declines

Russia’s long-term economic growth is under threat, as the nation’s workforce continues to decline, according to analysts. Faced with this predicament, officials are looking at ways to reform the country’s immigration policies that place restrictions on importing foreign workers.

So far, more than 6 million of its citizens have emigrated over the past two decades, while the birth rate is low and the death rate high. By 2025, the number of workers could drop by 10 million and, with the population stable at about 141 million, the Demography Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences estimates the workforce would drop by 7.1 per cent by 2020.

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