belarus Legalizing Serfdom Amid a Labor Shortage

belarusian businesses are sounding the alarm: over 85% of companies can no longer fill job openings. prime minister aleksandr turchin attributes the crisis to demographics and an aging population, but pointedly ignores the main reason –belarusians’ mass leaving for abroad to escape lukashenko’s regime.

The response of the government and business community to the crisis is telling. Instead of addressing the root causes driving people to emigrate, the council for entrepreneurship development proposes a set of measures to retain those who haven’t left yet: mechanisms to protect companies from “poaching” employees, strengthening the system of forced distribution of young professionals, and mass recruitment of students into the workforce under the guise of “practical skills”.

Meanwhile, the labor market shows nearly 154,000 open vacancies as of March 13 – and this figure continues to rise.

In fact, minsk is moving toward legally binding employees to enterprises – a classic soviet practice that the civilized world calls forced labor. For the generation that did not manage or was unable to leave, the belarusian state is thoroughly building a cage and calling it labor market reform.