In late 2025 and early 2026, several serious shocks to Russia’s labor market became public, affecting major industrial sectors.
One of the most notable cases involved Cemros, the country’s largest cement producer. The company halted operations at two plants and reduced output at a third. According to Rusprofile, about 1,000 employees were placed on downtime.
This development appears less surprising than inevitable. Housing sales have stagnated, while the launch of new construction projects fell by 12%. Expensive mortgages were cited as one of the main reasons, holding back demand and hurting related industries, including building materials production.
Another striking episode concerns the coal industry in Kuzbass. At the end of the year, wages at several major mining enterprises were reduced severalfold, and in some cases by tens of times.
For example, workers at the Berezovskaya mine received just 4,000 rubles in October. The article says this amounted to only 7% of miners’ already meager wages. At other enterprises, workers reportedly received as little as 500 rubles, whereas they had previously been able to earn up to 300,000 rubles.
The sharp drop in pay is described as a consequence of a large-scale crisis in the coal sector. Around 150,000 people work in this industry overall, and the situation illustrates how severely the industrial downturn is affecting workers’ livelihoods.