• A
  • A
  • A
  • ABC
  • ABC
  • ABC
  • А
  • А
  • А
  • А
  • А
Regular version of the site

Labour market under crisis pressure

Olga Kuzina, the superior research fellow at the HSE Lab for Studies in Economic Sociology, reveals social impact of the crises.

"Not everybody who is actually unemployed can be formally unemployed," Olga Kuzina, a sociologist at the Higher School of Economics. "Their employers ask them not to come to work and cannot pay them."

Without their salaries, these workers suffer the same problems as the unemployed, but are unable to receive any official support providing retraining or further employment.

"Without redundancies the influence of the crisis will be greater because more people are affected," she said. "In these circumstances it is impossible to help these people and so, in economic terms, it is less efficient."

The government should "give the skills and education that people lack to the unemployed," said Kuzina. "That will be more efficient than keeping them in the position where they are employed and waiting for the crisis to be over."

"Very few people want to protest or think that protests can help them overcome the crisis or change the situation," said Kuzina. "There is no social basis for protests right now."

Olga Kuzina for the Moscow News

See also:

NEET Youth: What Happens When People Lack Diligence, Emotional Stability and Perseverance

Demand for higher education increases with the development of technologies that replace routine labour, and there is already increased demand for specialists in the IT industry today. At the same time, some university graduates neither study nor work, while about one third of this ‘free’ youth cohort lives in poverty (as do their parents). This topic was discussed at the XXIII Yasin International Academic Conference session on human capital and salaries.

Customs, Career Choices and Self-discrimination: Why Women Earn Less

Experts from the World Bank and HSE University discussed the gender gap in salaries in different countries and the impact of socio-cultural, economic and behavioural factors on differences in earnings.

Education and Employment in ‘Hard’ Science Provide no Salary Advantages Compared to ‘Soft’ Science at Any Career Stage

HSE University economists question whether Russian STEM specialists are better paid than non-STEM specialists. They compare wages of professionals with STEM and no STEM majors, and those working in STEM and no STEM jobs and explore how the gap evolves over the life cycle. They find that there is no advantage of STEM major and STEM job over their no STEM alternative. They present their findings in a paper published in the Voprosy Ekonomiki journal.

Europe to Face a Reverse Brain Drain: Up to 3.5 Million Highly Skilled Professionals Could Return Home

As the pandemic continues and working from home becomes the norm in some industries, professionals who once left to work in other countries are beginning to return home. Researchers from HSE University, the Catholic University of Louvain and the University of Lille have found out how strong this movement could be and what economic, social and political implications it might bring. The preprint of the study was published in the GLO Discussion Papers.

Why Women in Russia Earn Less Than Men

On average, women in Russia earn 30-35% less than men. According to this indicator, Russia is ahead of many developed countries. The difference in earnings is primarily associated with the uneven distribution of men and women in different industries and professions, but economists cannot explain a significant portion of the discrepancy. Aleksey Oshchepkov, Assistant Professor of the Faculty of Economic Sciences at HSE University, came to these conclusions after analyzing research materials and survey data. The results are published in a chapter of the volume, Gendering Post-Soviet Space, recently published by Springer.

Gender Asymmetry Affects Labour Market

According to Natalia Tikhonova, a social scientist with HSE University, gender asymmetry has been on the rise in Russia's labour market over the past 20 years. Gender asymmetry is reflected in the ‘feminisation’ of white-collar jobs and a disproportionate number of men among blue-collar workers. In addition to this, increasing automation in traditionally male industrial sectors is leading to fewer jobs available to men. In contrast, occupations with a growing demand for skills tend to be those which are mainly filled by women.

‘Cognitive Skills Are not Sufficient to Be Successful in Labour Market’

This September, HSE – St. Petersburg hosted the 3rd IZA/HSE University Workshop on Skills and Preferences and Labor Market Outcomes in Post-Transition and Emerging Economies. HSE News Service spoke with Professor Lehmann, co-organizer of the workshop, about human capital, the importance of cognitive and noncognitive skills, and the challenges empirical labour economists encounter when studying these issues in post-transition and emerging economies.

Relatively Unhappy: How Strict Labour Laws Reduce Workers’ Happiness

Temporary or informally employed people are less satisfied with their lives than those with a permanent job. The most apparent differences can be seen in countries with strict labour laws. Tatiana Karabchuk and Natalia Soboleva investigated the legislative impact on the social well-being of employed populations in European countries and Russia.

Trapped by a Flexible Schedule: The Pain and Price of Freelance Work

A flexible schedule is one of the main advantages of freelance work. But don’t rejoice in your freedom just yet: self-employment often disrupts the balance between life and work and takes up more time than traditional office work. HSE University researchers Denis Strebkov and Andrey Shevchuk investigated the downsides of independent work.

Work That Kills: The Danger of Nonstandard Working Schedules

More than 64% of employed Russians work evenings, nights or weekends, and this is one of the highest figures among European countries. Andrei Shevchuk and Anna Krasilnikova were the first to study the extent of nonstandard working hours in Russia and its impact on work-life balance.