Jack-of-all-trades: car service stations are faced with a shortage of personnel
Car service stations in Russia are experiencing an acute shortage of personnel — the shortage reaches up to a third of the required number of employees, market participants estimate. According to their data, the industry lacks about 150,000 qualified specialists. Among the key reasons are working conditions and a shortage of employees with the required level of competence. College and university graduates are often not ready for practical work and move into areas with faster earnings. From January to November 2025, the number of vacancies in the car service segment increased by 11% compared to the same period in 2024. The most in demand are car accessories, car tanners and car electricians.
Which car service specialists are missing
Russian car service stations lack about a third of their employees to be fully staffed, representatives of large service stations told Izvestia.
According to Alexander Pakhomov, vice-chairman of the Union of Car Service Stations of Russia, about 800 thousand people currently work at service stations in the Russian Federation. According to Olga Selezneva, chairman of the Regional Association of Technological Service Stations (RASTO), this figure is up to 1.5 million people. According to her estimates, the industry lacks 150,000 qualified specialists.
The shortage of personnel is most acute in Moscow and St. Petersburg, Izvestia found out by interviewing representatives of the services. Thus, according to estimates by Maktyre and Tsaritsyno Car Service, their shortage of specialists reaches about 40%. In one of the capital's service stations, located in a shopping center, only two craftsmen work on four lifts, employees complained.
"Everyone who owns the service will tell you that we are experiencing an acute shortage of staff," said Tamara Semenchenko, head of Maktyre.
A representative of the Club Garage service station in St. Petersburg reported a shortage of 70% of specialists — motorists, diagnosticians and electricians. And Persona stated that they need from a third to a half of car mechanics.
In the regions, the deficit is slightly lower and amounts to about 20%. So, one of the representatives of Fit Service in Tyumen reported that due to the growing popularity of machines with more modern electronic control systems, about 20% of employees are not enough to staff. According to representatives of the Sanreno car service stations in Nizhny Novgorod and GrinAvto in Vladivostok, they need from 10% to 20% of specialists, mainly administrators and car mechanics.
Car service stations understand that if a specialist leaves, it will be difficult to find a new one. For example, a representative of Kaliningrad-based Mobil 1 noted that the issue is particularly acute with specialists of a narrow focus, such as an auto electrician or tire fitter.
Avito Rabota told Izvestia that in the period from January to November 2025, the number of vacancies for car service workers increased by 11% compared to the same period in 2024.
—In terms of professions, auto mechanics (+70%), car tanners (+37%) and car electricians (+16%) are in the highest demand," Roman Gubanov, the company's development director, told Izvestia.
According to Irina Kulieva, HR director of the international franchise network Fit Service, most of all there are not enough diagnosticians of electronic systems and car mechanics.
The reasons for the shortage of car service employees
Most of the car service representatives interviewed cited the lack of qualifications of young workers and their desire to earn "easy" money as the main problem.
Sergey Kozhukhov, Head of the HR Committee of the Russian Automobile Dealers Association (ROAD) and Director of the ROAD Academy, agreed with this opinion. According to him, there is now an outflow of young people into other business areas — trade, marketplaces, delivery services, and media, which allows them to achieve financial results here and now with a lower level of qualifications and a lower degree of responsibility. For the same reason, many specialists go into the gray area of business.
"If you look at the statistics for service companies, there are 117 thousand service points in Russia today, and only 4% are official dealer stations,— added Sergey Kozhukhov.
Another problem of the industry is the aging of personnel. Anna Lazakovich, Brand Manager of Petrovsky Group, told Izvestia that most of the current technicians are over 45 years old.
— They retire faster than new young professionals who perceive work as hard and dirty. At the same time, the complexity of the design of the cars themselves is growing, and new skills are not always available to current specialists," the expert added.
According to Irina Kuliyeva, there are significantly more people over 55 years old than young people among job seekers in the industry. Alexander Pakhomov, in turn, believes that the problem lies in the fact that the knowledge that applicants receive is not enough.
— Children who do not have a school base go to vocational schools. They don't know the basics of physics and chemistry, and without this knowledge it is impossible to diagnose a car," he said.
According to Olga Selezneva, businesses need to cooperate more actively with educational institutions and provide information about the need for specific personnel.
— In those institutions where there is no business participation today, the conversion rate to a specialty is 10%, and where employers are interested, they cooperate with colleges, with teaching staff, with students and graduates, it reaches 70%, — the chairman of RASTO told Izvestia.
Experts also cite extremely high staff turnover in the industry as one of the reasons for the situation.
— On average, car service stations change teams twice a year. This is not a consequence of the economy, but the result of improper management at a specific point, which is not present in our network," Irina Kuliyeva clarified.
A joint study by Autostat and Fit Service showed that in the first 10 months of 2025, the number of car services decreased by 6% after an increase in 2024.
The shortage is not due to a shortage of personnel, but to the fact that there are too many service stations in some regions, says Pavel Lunin, Director General of the Index analytical agency. According to his previous research, the availability of car services in Russia is two or more times higher than in Germany, where the fleet is about the same. He also stressed that the threshold for entry into the industry is extremely low and it is crowded with unqualified managers. In his opinion, licensing of activities, as it is done in Europe, can fix the situation.
How can the situation be changed
Car service workers interviewed by Izvestia reported that in a situation of staff shortage, their workload increases, but the queue of customers is still growing. For example, in the Moscow-Tianya shopping center, they noted that they try to take on long-term projects so that the place is not empty.
The St. Petersburg services also found a way out of the situation. Auto Phoenix solved the problem by creating decent working conditions and increasing wages. And in the Club Garage service station, employees are selected from those who undergo an internship. Out of 20 people, they usually take four.
According to the Avito Jobs survey, 72% of Russians start their careers as students, while among automotive professionals this figure reaches 84%.
According to Sergey Kozhukhov, head of the ROAD HR Committee and director of the ROAD Academy, production practice plays a positive role: in 2025, Moscow dealer stations accepted from 300 to 400 students from partner colleges.
— This is turning into thousands of interns and students throughout the capital. And it is very important that about 10-15% of interns are employed at the enterprise. Therefore, we will strengthen this approach," the expert added.
What the industry expects
In 2026, the country will see a noticeable increase in the cost of attracting personnel, Irina Kuliyeva is sure.
— Prices for job placement will increase. For small and medium-sized car service stations, this means the need to diversify recruitment channels. Today and in the near future, a qualified employee is the main competitive advantage. In 2026, this issue will be more important than ever," the specialist noted.
According to Alexander Pakhomov from the Union of Car Service Stations, if the trend continues, there will soon be no qualified personnel at all.
— There are several ways out of the situation. It is necessary to build such cars that do not need to be repaired, that is, a one-time approach, as in China. If they need to be repaired, then use nodal repairs when, for example, the entire engine is being changed instead of repairing a separate spare part," he said.
The expert also noted the need to develop automated diagnostic systems, which assume the possibility of an unskilled employee using electronics — this is also a possible solution to the personnel issue in the industry.
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