The key facts

  • 68% of women on parental leave plan to look for a new job after parental leave
  • 25% want a higher-paying job; 48% of them link this to a mortgage and renovations
  • 22% intend to return to their previous job, 10% will decide based on circumstances

Most plan to look for a new job

68% of participants in a survey by the financial marketplace Vyberru.ru plan to look for a new job after parental leave; the research results were reviewed by Gazeta.Ru. The survey involved 1,200 women on parental leave. Among the reasons cited were increased family expenses, the need for a flexible schedule, and a desire to change professions.

What drives the desire to leave

A quarter of respondents would like to find a higher-paying job. Of these, 48% attributed the increased financial needs to a mortgage and renovations after expanding their living space, another 34% to expenses on children, including private kindergarten, a nanny, and classes; the rest want to maintain or raise their usual standard of living. For 19% of participants, insufficiently flexible working conditions were the reason for not returning to their previous job, and one in ten decided during parental leave to change professions. Another 8% reported that their department or functions had been eliminated or restructured, while 6% intend to focus entirely on motherhood and hand over financial support of the family to their partner.

Who is ready to return

22% of participants would like to return to their previous job — they are satisfied with the existing conditions. Another 10% will decide based on circumstances, considering it risky to quit without a new offer in hand. Age differences are noticeable: among those considering a career change, 42% were women aged 26–35, while in the group ready to return to their previous employer, 37% were participants aged 36–45.

Comment from the survey organizers

“The birth of a child is an event that inevitably reorganizes the family budget and at the same time becomes a moment of revising the life and professional priorities of each parent,” commented Yaroslav Badzhurak, executive director of Vyberru.ru. No separate explanation of the survey methodology is provided in the publication, so the results reflect the views of the study participants specifically, not all women on parental leave.