Young People in the Russian Labour Market: Challenges and Responses

The problems of youth is always under scrutiny by the government officials, humanitarian scientists and international organizations. The most unsettling and topical problems in the contemporary field of work is related to significant changes in economic structures, forms of employment and work organization, work content; raising diversity, flexibility and dynamic. Young people all over the world face with more and more challenges.

Our investigations show that young people in Russia are actively involved into the economic life of the country. In 2015-2016 they were more likely to start working earlier, to combine work with study, to engage in entrepreneurship than in 2006-2008. Generally, the population notes the increase in the jobs’ opportunities, and especially for young people. At the same time, we have revealed a series of specific features and contradictions in the youth labor market of Russia: increasing demand for quality jobs against decent jobs deficit and precarization; bigger number of the youth employed in the economy and smaller number of youth, registered in social insurance funds; increasing share of young people with higher education along with delay in modernization of the economic structure and jobs; growing differentiation of regional labour markets despite of globalization and intensified migration etc.

The author examines the labor market situation of young people (at the age of 18-24 and 25-29) at the national (Russia) and regional (the Republic of Bashkortostan of the Russian Federation). Based on sociological and statistical data, the author analyses challenges of the transformational processes and problems of young people, their feelings, expectations and career strategies; compares with available data, characterizing global tendencies and processes.