Complementary approach: in a number of regions, interest in part-time work has increased by a third

One of the main trends in the labor market of the past and the beginning of this year was the growing interest of Russians in part-time work, it follows from the data of HR services. In the whole country, the number of resumes of applicants for additional and temporary employment increased by 10-11%, but in some regions, for example, in the Yaroslavl and Astrakhan regions, the number of responses increased by more than a third. About the regions in which part—time work becomes a way to quickly restore purchasing power, see the Izvestia article.

Where are they looking for a part-time job

The activity of job seekers for temporary workers grew throughout 2025, and this dynamic continued in 2026, the job search services told Izvestia. According to Superjob data, in January Russians created 11% more resumes than in the same period last year.

Avito Part-time Job experts estimated a 10% increase in responses to such vacancies in December-January. Most often, people responded to offers from the hospitality and tourism sectors (+81% compared to the same period last year), telecommunications and communications (+39%), warehouses and storages (+37%), retail and wholesale trade (+30%).

According to SuperJob, applicants were primarily interested in additional earnings in finance — as accountants, managers, analysts, and economists. The field of sales was popular (positions — salesman, cashier, manager, sales floor employee), remote customer support — call center operator or chat host. The "five" most in-demand areas for part-time work also include delivery (order pickers, couriers, car couriers) and medicine (doctor, nurse, laboratory assistant).

The fastest rise in responses from applicants was recorded in the Yaroslavl region — +34%, in Mari El (+32%) and Astrakhan region (+27%), according to the Avito Part-time job service. Interest in additional earnings increased by 20% or more in the Tula region, Udmurtia, Ulyanovsk, Tambov, Tyumen and Tomsk regions.

Why is the request growing in the regions?

The listed regions are territories with a high proportion of the industrial sector and the public sector, said Ekaterina Kashtanova, Associate Professor of the Department of Personnel Management at the State University of Management.

— Salaries there are stable, but slow: they don't keep up with real inflation as fast as in megacities. Part—time work becomes a way to quickly restore purchasing power," the expert said. — There is also an acute shortage of personnel in retail, logistics and services in these regions. Businesses, unable to hire full-time employees, massively withdraw vacancies for shift schedules and one-time assignments, provoking an offer.

Ekaterina Kashtanova added that the part-time job market is already oversaturated in Moscow and St. Petersburg, and in these regions it is only now entering a phase of active growth, thanks to digital platforms.

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However, according to the hh.ru By region, companies from Moscow (14% of the total number of jobs), the Moscow Region (11%), St. Petersburg (7%), the Krasnodar Territory (4%) and the Sverdlovsk Region (4%) posted the most part-time vacancies. By the end of January 2026, employers posted more than 71.3 thousand such vacancies.

Platform employment makes it possible to retain qualified specialists in the regions, but for this they must have a high quality of life, said Vladimir Korovkin, Deputy Director of the Center for Communications and Digital Solutions and head of research at the Skolkovo School of Management.

— According to my observations, Tyumen and Tula meet this criterion, possibly Tomsk. For the rest, we need a lot of work, the task of which is to provide a life like in Moscow, but significantly cheaper," he said.

The listed territories, with the exception of the Tyumen Region, are regions with low wages and a fairly scarce labor market, says the director of the Research Center for Spatial Analysis and Regional Diagnostics at the Institute of Applied Economic Research of the RANEPA (Presidential Academy). Dmitry Zemlyansky.

— Accordingly, it is not possible to find a permanent employee for low pay, and it is quite possible to cover part of the need at the expense of those who earn extra money. The employer gets a closed vacancy, and the employee gets additional earnings," Zemlyansky believes.

Anna Maslennikova, head of the Department of State and Municipal Administration at the Russian New University, noted that she would not "discount" the fact that Tyumen is an oil region.

— The oil industry does not employ the entire population of the region, and what should the rest do except look for a part-time job? — she asked a rhetorical question.

Mikhail Khachaturian, Associate Professor of the Department of Strategic and Innovative Development at the Financial University, suggested that in these regions, the cost of living, despite the efforts made by regional and federal authorities, is still growing faster than the wages and living standards of the population.

— The need to achieve a balance between these indicators leads to a growing interest in part—time work among the population, - he said. — In general, this interest suggests that, despite the measures being implemented to increase the income level of the population, this growth does not allow to cover all needs at the expense of basic types of earnings.

Mikhail Khachaturian noted that even if a balance is achieved between the growth rate of the cost of living and the income level of the population, the need for additional earnings is unlikely to disappear. It will persist, but most likely it will not manifest itself so vividly.

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The concept of core work is blurring

The steady increase in the request for part-time work suggests that the concept of "main job" is blurring, Ekaterina Kashtanova believes. In general, such a surge in the regions is a reaction to economic pressure, and the nationwide trend is the beginning of the end of the era of classic nine-to-six hiring.

— We are moving to the "portfolio employment" model, where income consists of two or three sources. It gives a person a sense of financial security," she said.

The situation also shows that many employees, especially young ones, are not ready to "live at work" for a fixed salary.

"They are starting to evaluate their time as a resource: if they have worked a shift, they have received money here and now," Ekaterina Kashtanova explained.

At the same time, she said, the situation also indicates that people have stopped waiting for salary indexation and have switched to a strategy of "active survival."

— In addition, the increase in numbers is often associated with legalization — people register as self-employed in order to officially earn extra money through aggregators, which previously was not included in the statistics, — the expert noted.

Natalia Yumatova, Director of Avito's Trust and Security Department, pointed out that part—time work is also an opportunity to gain experience. And in the face of growing interest, she recommended not to forget about safety rules — to choose trusted companies (to study reviews and ratings), as well as to formalize even temporary relationships officially, clearly agreeing on all the terms of cooperation before starting work.