The Field of Labour in Post-Soviet Russia: Landmarks of Development and New Challenges

The article discusses the key stages of the labor sphere development in the Post-Soviet Russia: transformation crisis of the 1990s, recovery growth and the period of economic instability, crowned with the coronavirus pandemic. Particular attention is paid to the role of globalization and the state policy as key factors shaping the vector of changes during the latest three decades. It is shown that at the eve of reforms the standard neoliberal approach generated by globalization and reflected in the principles of the Washington Consensus was adopted. Uncontrolled development of market relations resulted in a survival economy and propagation of working poor and. Triggered by state neglect of social problems and low efficiency of social safety nets a mechanism replacing growth of open unemployment by informal labor relations was launched. The second decade of reforms was characterized by growing human capital mismatch and labor market segmentation with decent jobs supplied mainly by large firms in privileged sectors of economy. Lately, the labor sphere development vector was impacted by a wide range of diverse factors, including sharp world economy fluctuations, sanctions from the OECD countries, shift in demographic trends, rapid spread of digital economy, and finally, the coronavirus pandemic. Finally, the likely mechanisms of labor sphere adaptation to the new economic reality generated by pandemic are discussed. It is shown that the key risk faced by the working population of Russia is a new round of expansion of informal labor relations and unprotected precarious employment generating more poverty and instability in the world of work.