Employment In Russia Research Articles

The Problem of the Discrepancy Between Work, Education, and Literacy in Russia

This article studies the problem of the discrepancy between attained education and employment in Russia. Our research relies on the results of an international study of adult competencies (Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies, or PIAAC) that measured the reading literacy and numeracy of working-age people using representative national samples. The test results of OECD countries demonstrate that there is a connection with the level of formal education. However, we observed several deviations from this general trend in Russia. An analysis has allowed us to identify three types of discrepancies. We discovered that there is no linear relationship between the level of formal education and measured literacy in Russia. Gains in competency slow down at the higher education level in Russia. At the same time, the literacy level that was observed at the lower educational stages was in line with what was observed in leading countries from around the world. It was discovered that a larger share of people with a low level of literacy occupy high-skilled jobs in Russia than in developed countries. When we assess the distribution of people with a particular formal education on the labor market in Russia, we see a picture that is very similar to what we can observe in the OECD countries. Apparently, this discrepancy has remained hidden because of the unreliability of the educational indicator of possessing a higher education degree. This indicator has been used as the main (and in most cases the only) factor in both sociological and economic studies that have been conducted in Russia. The third empirical finding of our study indicates that there is a correspondence between the importance assigned to measured literacy and possessing a higher education degree in the job placement process. In Russia, both factors seem to be significant, but measured literacy is more strongly correlated with the likelihood of being employed than possessing a formal degree. At the same time, the difference in income level among respondents with low and high rates of literacy in Russia is much less than in the OECD countries. We interpret the quantitative measurements in light of qualitative data from a research project that studied life trajectories.

Indicators Of Precarious Employment In The Formal Economy In Russia, Quantitative Evaluation

The Object of the Study. Precarious employment. The Subject of the Study. Indicators for the quantitative estimation of the prevalence of precarious employment in the formal economy in Russia.The Purpose of the Study. Еvaluation of the prevalence of the precarious employment phenomena in the employment sphere in Russia. The Main Provisions of the Article. The system of indicators of precarious employment involving estimation based on the analysis of the forms and conditions of employment applicable to employees in the formal economy in Russia is introduced in the article. Quantitative assessment of the prevalence of precarious employment in Russia on the proposed indicators based of data of Federal State Statistics Service and the Russia Longitudinal Monitoring survey (RLMS-HSE) are provided, the dynamics of indicators in the period 2013-2016 are considered. The analysis of the obtained results is conducted, areas (indicators) associated with the greatest prevalence of precarious employment in Russia are identified.

Возможные меры снижения неформальной занятости и скрытой оплаты труда

The scale of informal employment and hidden wages in Russia is significant and has increased even under conditions of economic growth and tax reforms throughout the 2000s. International experience proves that success in reducing the level of informal employment can only be achieved by implementing a comprehensive policy that combines incentives and sanctions in various spheres of regulation and includes broader tasks for improving institutions, economic reforms, and changing social norms related to relevance of informal relations. Within the framework of the study, based on an analysis of the specifics and causes of the existence of informal and shadow employment in Russia, authors formulate recommendations aimed at reducing informal employment and hidden wages. Recommendations take into account relevant international experience, as well as the specifics of the causes of informal employment in Russia and policies already undertaken by the Russian government.

Employment adjustment in Russia: Extensive vs itensive margins in 1995–2016

In this paper I study the adjustment of employment in Russia since its transformation to a market economy. Employment is considered in terms of total hours of work in the economy. This allows to decompose the adjustment into two components: extensive margin (the number of people employed) and intensive margin (the number of hours per employed worker). The task is to estimate the contribution of both margins of employment adjustment. The Rosstat and the OECD aggregate annual data of 1995–2016 are used. The results of the decomposition show that fluctuations on extensive margin are a lot more important for cyclical fluctuations in the total hours of work. A slight decrease of extensive margin in 2010–2016 is mainly at-tributed to the decline in volatility of the number of people employed which took place during a protracted period of slowing economic growth. Since the early 2000s, the labour market is more responsive to negative shocks rather than positive ones. To see peculiarities of employ-ment adjustment in Russia I perform comparative analysis with the relevant statistics for Ger-many and the US. Number of employees seems to be the most relevant proxy of the behavior of labour inputs in the Russian economy. The results obtained are new to research area of the Russian labour market.

Quality of youth employment in Russia: analysis of job satisfaction assessments

The objective of the paper is to reveal regularities and specific features of the quality of employment among young Russian workers. The author analyses the patterns of individual-specific job satisfaction assessments. The empirical basis of the study is the data of the 22d wave of the Russian Longitudinal Monitoring Survey — Higher School of Economics (RLMS-HSE) which corresponds to the period of relative economic stability (late 2013-early 2014).To reveal the youth employment specifics the average job satisfaction scores in different age groups were calculated; a comparative study of their distributions based on a number of criteria was carried out. Multiple correlation analysis was used to define factors of job satisfaction. The novelty of the paper lies in the object of analysis, namely the youth employment quality given the lack of homogeneity in job satisfaction assessments. The U-shaped relationship was found between job satisfaction and age.Among youth groups, a group of 15—19 year olds differs both by the highest job satisfaction levels and a bigger share of those who are not satisfied with the wages and opportunities for professional growth. The study reveals that this is the only group where the share of persons who are satisfied with the job increases in times of crisis. New determinants of job satisfaction describing the regional labor market (relative unemployment rates and wage inequality) were introduced.The findings can be used for further research of the employment quality and show that the Russian youth employment quality should be put on the agenda. The author suggests that the assessments of job satisfaction levels should be included in the official system of employment quality indicators.

Precarious employment as a possible factor behind the use of youth labor force potential in Russia

The purpose of the paper is to describe specific features of young Russian employees. The study considers the concept of precarious employment in Russia and provides an analysis of the narrowed opportunities for active young Russians. The authors use theoretical studies of precarious employment conducted by the Russian researchers, the data of the Federal State Statistics Service (Rosstat) and the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation.To examine specific features of young Russian employees, the authors analyze demographic trends in Russia, youth employment opportunities and employment conditions during the transitions from school to work, unemployment levels and the results of the monitoring of career opportunities of university graduates. Precarious employment of young persons decreases the use of their labor capital which eventually limits the potential for economic growth. The findings show a decrease in the percentage of young Russians aged 15—29.The article explores the levels of youth informal employment in the formal sector, specific features of youth unemployment depending on the level of education and the importance to monitor the graduate employment for universities and employers.Based on the data obtained the authors detect the problem areas of the youth employment which would help to more effectively use the youth labor capital, to develop programs of adaptation of the graduates to the labor market, to draw up employment ratings and to engage the most successful business representatives to implement education programs and to assess their results.

Quality of youth employment in Russia: analysis of job satisfaction estimates. A book review on ‘The Pulse of Democracy: the Public Opinion Poll and How it Works’ by G. Gallup, S. F. Rae

Quality of youth employment in Russia: analysis of job satisfaction estimates. A book review on ‘The Pulse of Democracy: the Public Opinion Poll and How it Works’ by G. Gallup, S. F. Rae

Развитие дистанционного труда в России: преимущества и недостатки

The article considers the topical issues of the development of remote work in Russia. The 21st century is called the century of information technologies: there is an active introduction of high technologies in all spheres of human activity, including the sphere of labor. Such atypical form of employment as remote work is based on the opportunity provided by modern technology to perform the job of the employer, without being in the workplace. In foreign countries, remote work is better developed in comparison with our country. Many foreign companies have experienced the positive aspects of distance employment: saving time spent on the road, solving transport problems, reducing environmental tensions, reducing unemployment, having more time for family communication and relaxation. However, the author points out not only the advantages, but also the disadvantages of distance employment. The article highlights the factors hindering the development of remote work in Russia, for example, the imperfection of the legal regulation of remote work and others. In conclusion, the prospects for further expansion of distance employment in Russia are assessed.

Criteria, Probability and Degree of Instability of Employment Taking into Account the Features of the Russian Labour Market

The article reveals the issues of the global character of precarization and substantiates the criteria of precarious employment taking into account its special aspects in Russian Federation. The existing variability of approaches to the definition of precarious employment and the necessity to elaborate its optimal criteria in view of features of national labour have conditioned the relevance of the research. The paper involves international and Russian research on precarity and significantly uses the results of expert survey conducted by the authors in autumn 2016. The experts have considered groups of criteria based on: labour contract term, nature of labour relations, precarious terms of work. The experts also were asked to evaluate different forms of employment in which precarity may exert. As a result of the conducted research, we have elaborated the generalized criteria, which identify various forms of instability in labour market. The authors put forward a hypothesis that the criteria of the International Labour Organization (ILO) need to be adapted to the Russian realities when determining unstable employment, and the phenomenon of precarious employment has to be defined from the point of view of the probabilistic nature of its various manifestations. Based on the results of the research, the authors have qualified the relevance of International Labour Organization’s (ILO) criteria in the Russian context. We also have substantiated the probable character of precarious employment and defined probability of precarity exertion in the flexible forms of employment. The set of precarious employment criteria is specified in accordance with Russian context: we have clarified and complemented them, and defined the probability of precarity exertion in different forms of employment. The main result of the research is the structure of criterial standards, which identifies precarious employment.The conceptual issues and findings of the paper can be used as a theoretical and methodological basis to identify the scale of precarious employment in Russia as well as to evaluate precarity exertion in individual workplace.

“Name the Republic that was joined to Russia in 2014:” Russia’s New Civics and History Test for Migrants

This article examines Russia’s civics and history test, which has been mandatory, since January 2015, for millions of labor migrants applying for a work permit. An analysis of the test’s content and of the context in which it was adopted provides a strong case to study how autocracies can use civics tests as instruments of control. Specifically, I argue that the test must be understood in light of Russia’s state-sponsored nationalism, latent xenophobic sentiments, and its increasingly restrictive and incoherent migration policy. Not only are many questions irrelevant or disconnected from migrants’ everyday concerns: their personal experiences of paying bribes, obtaining fake certificates, or being harassed by the police often contradict the correct answers on the exam. While it is doubtful that this test – along with several other new requirements imposed on migrants – will dissuade foreign laborers to seek employment in Russia, it is bound to make them even more vulnerable to bribes.

The Global Education Programme in the Era of the Knowledge Based Economy: Context and Implications


 Marina Kovalenko — Senior Lecturer in English, Department of English for the Humanities, National Research University Higher School of Economics. Address: 3, Bolshoj Trekhsvyatitel’skij lane, Moscow, 123022, Russian Federation. E-mail: mkovalenko@hse.ru
 Citation: Kovalenko M. (2017) The Global Education Programme in the Era of the Knowledge Based Economy: Context and Implications. Mir Rossii, vol. 26, no 3, pp. 117–141. DOI: 10.17323/1811-038Х-2017-26-3-117-141
 The Global Education Programme (GEP) is an innovative government funded programme that offers Russian citizens the opportunity to study full-time at leading foreign higher education institutions and requires them to get employment in Russia in accordance with the qualification gained for a minimum of three years. Its purpose is to introduce the best international experiences and to apply them in Russia. Both the humanistic aims of GEP to provide access, equity, and social justice to high academic achievers and the number of obstacles to the long-term goals of modernization are core elements of this discussion. “5-100-2020”, an umbrella programme focused on both internal and international development, is discussed. Striving for better positions in top world rankings is viewed from a wide range of perspectives. The article assesses the extent to which GEP fits with the concepts and theories of internationalization, explores GEP as a policy initiative for economic modernization, and identifies the main mismatches between the ambitions and challenges of GEP. The political and cultural contexts are taken into consideration and intercultural comparisons are made. GEP participant survey data and their views on the programme reflecting their professional experiences are analysed.
 The first steps of GEP including grant awards to 718 GEP participants were not fully implemented. According to 8 December 2016 data, the number of participants was 413 which is less than 58% of the planned number. The funding process has been officially prolonged until 2025. The completion of GEP will be officially announced only after the fulfilment of the employment commitments by all the participants who have successfully completed their studies abroad.

Cumulation or compensation? Returns to adult education and social inequalities in Soviet and Post-Soviet Russia

ABSTRACTAdult education may mitigate social inequalities during the life course by allowing educationally disadvantaged groups to catch up to their advantaged peers and thereby improve their career prospects. To challenge this idea, I analyze returns to adult education and implications for social inequality in transition economies, particularly in Russia. The results, based on longitudinal data from the Russian Education and Employment Survey, show that adult education either pays off equally for all groups or has a greater benefit for those who already occupy more advantageous positions. Accordingly, adult education does not facilitate mobility among those who need it most to improve their labor market prospects and opportunities. Moreover, in many cases, those who are least advantaged (e.g. lower educated, unskilled) appear to be effectively excluded from any positive payoffs of adult education due to their lower participation. Hence, despite the promise of adult education to lower social inequality, initial social inequalities are not offset but are often amplified through adult education in Russia.

Обеспечение занятости как одно из направлений реализации концепции достойного труда в России

The article studied the problem of employment in Russia within the concept of the ILO “Decent work”. The causes of unemployment and non-standard forms of employment are identified, the foreign experience (Eric Brynjolfsson, McAfee) is given, which is relevant to this problem. The possible impact and consequences of technological progress and robotics on the labor market in Russia are considered. Rationalization of production in itself does not guarantee increased employment, training, health improvement and income growth. On the contrary, it often leads to job losses, depreciation of professional skills, to simplify and strict regulation of the labor process, and increased stress on workers. In this regard, the article suggests directions of combating unemployment and increasing the quantity and quality of employment.

THE IMPACT OF THE2014—2016 ECONOMIC CRISIS ON THE EMPLOYMENT OF RUSSIANS

The paper provides an analysis of the impact of the economic crisis on the Russian employment and is based on the results of the studies carried out by the Institute of Sociology of the Russian Academy of Sciences in 2009—2016 and the Federal State Statistics Service’s data. The authors explain that, according to the employment situation, the 2014—2016 crisis was a budget cri- sis and consumption crisis rather than an economic crisis. Basic labor rights have become less respected through- out the country, the average length of the workweek has increased, and even nominal hourly labor cost has decreased. The situation of the most vulnerable social and economic groups — those employed in the private sector, especially in commerce and public services as well as people living in small cities and rural area — has particularly deteriorated. Significant changes were observed in the Moscow labor market where the increasing workload was accompanied by the reduction of gap between the Moscow labor cost and the labor cost in other regions. By the 2016 autumn, the number of workers whose rights were not fully observed made up half of the employed population; the risk of job loss is high in this particular group. All the trends mentioned above are reflected in the Russian mass consciousness where a controversy between the employers and the employees plays an increasingly important role.

Disability as psychological barrier for employment in Russia, implications for rehabilitation

IntroductionIn Russia there was a misconception about employment of people with physical or cognitive disability that served as a psychological barrier for both employers and applicants. The situation has recently changed and special vacancies for invalids are open in some companies. A patient in residual period of traumatic brain injury (2010) attended our rehabilitation center with the request for employment. He grew up in orphanage and he had no experience of searching for vacancies by himself, also he had reduced communication skills. Moreover, TBI resulted in strong executive functions impairment.Objectives and aimHelp V with employment.MethodsHolistic rehabilitation program was developed for V. so he had a training in computer skills, CV writing and communication with employer. Cognitive-behavioral therapy methods were used while working on understanding of his limits and acceptance of his disability, and goal management training was applied to reduce frontal lobes dysfunction.ResultsAfter 1.5 months of counseling V. demonstrated significant improvement. He started to use e-mail and the Internet to find job openings. He was able to keep independent control of his activities. V. managed to accept his disability, so he declared it in his CV – it finally became crucial in his successful employment as clerk in a bank.ConclusionHolistic approach, which includes social work, neuropsychological rehabilitation and psychological support, is promising to overcome psychological barrier in employment of disabled people.Disclosure of interestThe authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

Termination of Journalists’ Employment in Russia: Political Conflicts and Ordinary Negotiation Procedures in Newsrooms

In the media community and sociopolitical publications, every termination of a journalist’s employment in Russia immediately raises suspicions of a crackdown on the “fourthestate.” In this article we analyze employment terminations in newsrooms in light of the interactions between separating parties. The political disputes that occurred in Russian news media between 2012 and 2014 shed light on the complex forms of pressure and compromise exerted on journalists. We have selected three cases (Gazeta.ru, Kommersant-Vlast’, and Lenta.ru) to illustrate three modalities of regulation of political disputesin the Russian media in the mid-2010s. They show that political control is perfectly compatible with the liberal management of press companies, which facilitates the use of financial justifications in cases of conflict, and with newsrooms’ commitment to social civility, which insures observance of good morals. Despite their differences, the three termination cases show the avoidance of politics in the Russian media in three ways. Neither authoritarian control nor renunciation on the part of journalists explains the exercise of power over the Russian media. It is rather on the side of negotiated arrangements meant to avoid political controversy that we observe the reconfiguration of public space in Russia. DOI: 10.25285/2078–1938–2017–9–2–39–58

Education within Sustainable Development: Critical Thinking Formation on ESL Class

The article is devoted to consideration of the critical thinking formation in course of foreign language teaching within the education for sustainable development as a crucial skill of perspective employee and a future leader of Russian employment market. The necessity to include the component of problem education and critical thinking methodology in course of the foreign language class is justified along with analysis of the basic principles of critical thinking and certain strategies that can be implied in class. This model targets communicative language competences of students as well as critical thinking due to interconnection of various types of cognitive activities in class. The role in personality development of the students is considered along with the formation and enhancing of critical thinking skills within the modern personality-oriented approach.

Public employment in Russia: Do social security or economic factors matter?

The paper contains analysis of Russian public employment and its segments: public administration, education and health care, in 2000-2014. The per capita number of public sector employees in Russia substantially exceeds that of countries with comparable GDP per capita. The results of the region-level analysis do not support the hypothesis that the public sector acts as an "employer of last resort", smoothing the effect of the labor market shocks. At the same time the region-level analysis reveals a positive relation of fiscal transfers from other budgets, which in case of public administration underpins the "ratchet effect" - an increase in case of additional revenues and no effect in case of the decrease of the inflow. In all segments there is evidence of the "economy of scale": the negative relation between the per capita employment and regional population numbers. There is also some support of the hypothesis that public employment depends on the demand for public goods: we have found positive relation of employment in public administration with urbanization and of employment in education with the share of young population.

Проблемы и перспективы государственного управления рынком труда Российской Федерации

The article deals with topical issues of state management of labor market in Russia. The analysis identified the problems and prospects of government employment. Some measures in public administration in the field of employment are marked. It is concluded that there are conditions for further expansion of employment in Russia.

Polarization or upgrading? Evolution of employment in transitional Russia

Abstract This paper discusses the structural changes in Russian employment and explores whether the evolution of employment from 2000 to 2012 followed the scenario of progressive upgrading in job quality or brought about the polarization of jobs in terms of quality. Jobs are defined in this study as occupation-industry cells, and their quality is measured through relative earnings and education level. Using detailed micro-data from a few complementary large-scale surveys, we rank all jobs according to the earnings and educational criteria and divide these distributions into five quintiles. At the next stage, we explore dynamic changes in job quality and socio-demographic characteristics of workers in different quintiles. The paper rejects the polarization scenario and confirms the upgrading hypothesis.