Language Skills as Economic Assets: Insights from the Russian Job Market

Introduction:  In contemporary labor markets, foreign language proficiency is increasingly recognized as a form of economic capital that influences employability, wage levels, and career mobility. While English remains the dominant working language in globally oriented industries, emerging trade partnerships and geopolitical real alignments are driving demand for linguistic diversification. However, empirical evidence on language-related labor market outcomes remains limited in non-Western contexts, including Russia.

Purpose: To examine the structure of demand for foreign language skills in the Russian labor market. It investigates variations across sectors and regions and assesses whether specific languages are associated with wage premiums.

Materials and Methods:  A total of 1,257 job postings with explicit foreign language requirements were collected from three major Russian employment platforms (hh.ru, SuperJob, and Avito) during the first quarter of 2025. The postings were manually annotated and categorized using ISCO-08 and Russian occupational codes. Descriptive statistics, frequency distributions, and salary comparisons were performed using Python (pandas, seaborn, scikit-learn). A control group of 980 language-neutral postings was selected for comparative salary analysis, matched by industry and job level.

Results:  English was the most frequently required language, accounting for 84.7% of all mentions, followed by Chinese (5.2%), Korean (3.4%), and German (2.9%). The median salary for language-required positions was 94,500 RUB, compared to 72,000 RUB for language-neutral postings. The highest language premiums were observed for Mandarin Chinese (+32,000 RUB) and German (+29,000 RUB). Sectoral analysis revealed that language-related wage advantages were most pronounced in IT, finance, and procurement. Regional variations indicated stronger demand for Asian languages in the Far East and Turkic or Arabic languages in the Volga and North Caucasus regions.

Conclusion:  The findings confirm that foreign language skills constitute a significant and unevenly distributed asset in the Russian labor market. While English maintains its dominance, regional and sectoral patterns reflect growing linguistic diversification due to economic reorientation. These insights contribute to ongoing debates on language policy, educational alignment, and the economic value of multilingualism in transitional economies.

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