Forced Labour or Placement?: Belarus Walks a Thin Line with "First Job Rule"
Imagine burning the candle at both ends to earn your university degree — only to have your government decide where you’ll work, for how long, and for how much. No freedom. No say. That’s the reality in Belarus, where mandatory job placement for university graduates isn’t just outdated but also authoritarian.
Harshul Sharma
8/11/20252 min read
Imagine burning the candle at both ends to earn your university degree — only to have your government decide where you’ll work, for how long, and for how much. No freedom. No say. That’s the reality in Belarus, where mandatory job placement for university graduates isn’t just outdated it’s authoritarian.
Known as 'raspredelenie,' the system forces graduates of state-funded programs to accept government-assigned jobs for at least two years. Refuse, and you’re slapped with a bill to repay the full cost of your “free” education.
In 2022, over 80% of these graduates were placed into mandatory positions, many in underfunded, remote areas. Pay is often low, opportunities for growth minimal. And over 60% of those placed said their jobs didn’t even match their education or career goals.
This isn’t just inefficient it’s punitive. While the government claims it’s about workforce distribution, the reality is clear, it’s about control. And once placed, switching jobs isn’t simple. Graduates need permission not just from employers, but local education officials too.
Belarus isn’t alone. Similar practices still operate in North Korea, Cuba, and Vietnam — places where labor rights are subordinated to state control. The International Labour Organization defines forced labor as any work under a threat of penalty. By that standard, Belarus’s policy walks a thin legal and moral line.
In an era where even authoritarian regimes are embracing market mechanisms to survive, Belarus remains an outlier, clinging to a model more suited to 1975 than 2025. This isn’t about job creation. It’s about punishment for getting an education under a regime that fears independent thought. And for thousands of young Belarusians each year, adulthood begins not with opportunity but with obligation.
What Comes Next? From education to obligation, countries like Belarus have chosen control over choice. But no economy can afford to treat its youth like a resource to be allocated rather than a generation to be empowered.
If they want to compete in a modern world, they’ll have to start by trusting young people not directing them.
