Migrants of the post-soviet space as a resource of the Russian rural labor market

Abstract

Human resources are the most important factor in the socio-economic development of the economy, including the economy of the agricultural sphere (meaning the organic unity of agricultural production and rural areas). In this regard, the authors of the study pay special attention to the analysis of the situation of its staffing, primarily in terms of studying the processes occurring in the human resources potential of mass professions, specialists and managers of agricultural organizations in Russia. The analysis was carried out according to the departmental reports of the Ministry of Agriculture of the Russian Federation. The article shows the dependence of the agricultural labor market, characterized by a shortage of personnel, both mass professions and specialists, on the internal factor (training of personnel) and external (attraction of migrants), examines the modern agricultural labor market, describes the multidirectional trends in the supply of labor both at the expense of migrants and at the expense of the domestic system of professionalization of personnel. It is determined that the outflow of rural population within and between the regions of Russia is more extensive than the inflow due to migration exchange with foreign countries, this disparity increases during the pandemic caused by COVID-19 and related social distancing measures. At the same time, despite the constantly observed decline in the number of workers in mass professions in the agro-industrial complex, the availability of jobs is almost at the same level of 93–95 %. It is shown that the income of migrants and the transfer of part of the funds to the countries of emigration have a positive effect on GDP growth and poverty reduction in these countries, and the quality of exported labor also improves. The relationship between rural migration and agricultural production is revealed. As a result of the study, the authors come to the conclusion that the state migration policy should stimulate the consolidation of the rural population and the return migration of the urban population to the rural area, and increase the attractiveness of rural areas for resettlement through the formation of unified rural-urban labor markets and rural-urban agglomerations.