Determinants of the Choice of Self-Employment Status on the Labour Market

Self-employment can be considered as an alternative form of employment in the labor market. In Russia, this form of employment has always existed (running a personal subsidiary farm, part-time work, tutoring, etc.), but until recently, the state did not distinguish self-employment as a separate type of employment. Most modern works on this topic belong to the field of law, and only a small number of researchers have analyzed the factors of transition to self-employment. Therefore, this work is devoted to the search and analysis of the determinants of this type of work. The research is based on data from surveys conducted by RLMS-HSE and Rosstat. A descriptive and econometric analysis of the data was performed. In this paper, the main determinants of the choice of self-employment status were identified. Thus, the majority of self-employed people are found in such areas of work as trade, construction, transport and agriculture. The latter is due to the fact that most of the self-employed live in rural areas. In addition, men are more likely to switch to self-employment. Moreover, it was found that the age of the majority varies between 30 and 50 years.