Behavior in the Labor Market

Abstract

Statistical data describing the evolution of the labor market in Russia are quite contradictory. Large industrial enterprises, which constituted the foundation of the Soviet economy and provided employment for most of the population, are today incapable not only of preserving jobs but also of paying workers' wages. So-called "new enterprises" are still few in number. Nonetheless, to the surprise of Western experts, no drastic increase in the number of unemployed has been observed. Hence real cases, the "living" work histories of our contemporaries, a kind of "look from below," are no less interesting than statistical data. How do people extricate themselves from a crisis situation? This article examines materials from a sociological study entitled "Restructuring Employment and the Development of the Labor Market in Russia," conducted by the Institute of Comparative Research on Labor Relations (ISITO) in four Russian cities. Our information base consisted of about 260 interviews with working people at twenty industrial enterprises in the cities of Samara and Kemerovo. The main theme of the interviews was the respondent's work history.