Over the past year, salaries for automotive management specialists in Russia rose significantly, climbing by about 23 percent. This trend is highlighted in a joint study conducted by hh.ru, a leading online recruitment platform, together with Fit Service, an international network of car service centers. The report paints a clear picture of a tightening labor market within the automotive sector and reveals how compensation tracks with demand for skilled professionals in this field.
The study notes that the average salary in Russia’s automotive industry reached 77.2 thousand rubles per month, marking a robust year-over-year increase of 23 percent. This figure helps recruiters and industry observers gauge the current state of the labor market, where demand for qualified personnel has outpaced the supply of candidates, pushing wages higher as companies compete to secure experienced workers who can keep vehicles on the road and service centers running smoothly.
The data also underscore a deeper shortage of automotive personnel relative to many other professional areas. Throughout the year, vacancies in the sector grew substantially, by about 37 percent across the country, while the pool of available candidates contracted by roughly 11 percent. By the end of 2023, the market displayed an average of only 2.2 active resumes per open position in this field, illustrating how tight the labor market has become for automotive roles. This scarcity of qualified applicants has implications for service quality, turnover, and the ability of service networks to scale with rising vehicle complexity and ownership rates.
Geographically, the highest compensation levels for workers in the automotive industry were concentrated in Moscow, where average salaries approached 101 thousand rubles, and Saint Petersburg, where they averaged around 90 thousand rubles. The regional picture also highlighted strong salary offers in the Krasnoyarsk Territory, and in the Republics of Bashkortostan and Tatarstan, suggesting that cities and regions with robust automotive activity and growing service networks continued to attract premium pay to secure skilled professionals.
In discussing the drivers behind these numbers, Tatiana Ovchinnikova, the director of the Fit Service network, pointed to changes in vehicle ownership and service patterns in 2023. She noted a 9 percent decline in service calls from owners of new vehicles, a trend that may reflect longer initial ownership cycles or stronger preventive maintenance practices among a subset of customers. On the other hand, demand within the older-vehicle segment showed notable growth, with vehicles aged 15 years and older driving a 21 percent increase in service orders. Cars in the 10-14 year category also rose in activity, occupying a secondary position in this shift toward older fleets needing more complex support. These patterns suggest a maturation in the customer base, where owners of aging vehicles seek more extensive repairs rather than routine maintenance alone, influencing how service centers staff, price, and schedule work to meet evolving needs.
According to the expert, the typical customer in the aging-vehicle cohort does not simply seek standard maintenance. Instead, such owners are more likely to require complex repairs, diagnostic work, and part replacements that demand specialized skills, tools, and experience. This shift has implications for how service facilities recruit technicians, train staff, and structure service offerings to deliver reliable outcomes while managing the costs associated with longer repair cycles and higher parts usage. In a market where expertise directly translates into uptime and customer satisfaction, service centers increasingly prioritize technicians with hands-on experience in engine restoration, electrical systems, and advanced diagnostics to meet the demands of older, higher-mileage fleets.
The broader landscape also intersects with consumer concerns about trust and integrity in vehicle maintenance. Public dialogue in Russia has included discussions of fraud within some car services, an issue that underscores the importance of transparent pricing, clear communication about repairs, and accreditation in the industry. For customers, choosing a reputable service provider remains a key factor in ensuring quality repairs and avoiding unnecessary or overpriced work. For operators, maintaining high standards of honesty, consistent service quality, and transparent invoicing remains essential to building long-term customer relationships and sustaining growth in a competitive market.