On Friday, the Russian newspaper Rossiyskaya Gazeta reported that a new study by the recruitment agency HeadHunter has found that the labor market in Russia is struggling with a steep shortage of skilled industrial workers willing to perform shift work.

The shortage was found to be most severe in the Russian republic of Bashkortostan. Previously a major supplier of the workforces of other regions of Russia, Bashkiria currently has 6% of skilled shift-work positions unfilled.

Rounding out the top five regions suffering from shortages of industrial workers were the Krasnoyarsk and Irkutsk Regions, each of which have 5% of such vacancies unfilled, as well as the Novosibirsk and Omsk Regions, which each have 4% of such positions unfilled.

The labor classification includes workers in such areas as oil and gas production, which can entail long hours spent in remote locations. In Russia, HeadHunter data indicates that such jobs will usually carry salaries which range from 150,000 to 200,000 rubles ($1,600-$2,200) per month.

Analysts believe the shortage in such workers is due to lower birth rates in the 1990’s and the early part of the 2000’s, as well as the emigration of highly qualified workers abroad, and the partial mobilization of the military last fall as Russia increased its military footprint in the conflict in Ukraine.

The study by HeadHunter indicated that no regions in Russia presently have an excess of high skilled shift workers.

Russia’s Central Bank Governor Elvira Nabiullina said earlier in the week that the nation was experiencing acute labor shortages due to the depleted nature of its workforce, and that this was threatening Russia’s economic growth. She added that the issue is most critical in sectors such as machine building and the chemical industry where they have already grown past their pre-crisis levels.