Statistical analysis of labor market trends of post-soviet countries in 1990–2020

Abstract

The availability and quality of the labor force are considered as ones of the main aspects of labor market regulation, its parameters largely depend on the growth rate of the economy and the growth of people’s well-being. The goal of the research is to identify the patterns of the labor market development of the post-Soviet countries based on the analysis of retrospective time series. These general scientific methods as historical and comparison, as well as statistical tools were used for that goal achievement. The application of a set of scientific methods to the main indicators of the labor market of post-Soviet countries revealed the following patterns: The huge increase in the number of people employed in the national economy which occurred before 1991, had been interrupted by the transformation of economies. As a result, a few Central Asian countries only were able to maintain the growth due to the high fertility and low mortality. Also, the unemployment rate showed low values at the initial stage of the development of the economic systems in the post-Soviet countries. In spite of that, in the 2000s its average value in the aggregate was significantly higher than the global average, as well as due to the lack of decent work in some countries of the post-Soviet space, there was a significant emigration which indicates the need to revise the economic policies of these republics. The obtained results and methodological approaches will be useful to researchers in the field of the labor market in the countries of the post- Soviet space, as well as specialists of the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of the Russian Federation to formulate policies on the labor migration from the former Soviet republics.