Informal Employment in Russia: the Influence and Lessons of the Pandemic

The article reviews the impact made by the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic
on informal employment in Russia, where this category comprises a significant
segment within the national market for labour. A study is made of the ambivalence in
the interpretations of informal employment, an ambivalence that creates difficulties
for reaching a quantitative assessment of this phenomenon. As is noted, informal
employment has a contradictory dynamic, affected by the influence of the pandemic
and by the unevenness of the distribution of this employment about the country’s
territory. In analysing the reasons for this dynamic, the author singles out both stable
and enduring factors linked to the peculiarities of the development of labour relations
in Russia, and also factors conditioned by the specific nature of the pandemic crisis. The
latter include the lockdown and restriction of economic activity, as well as the measures
taken by the state to support business and employment. From a preliminary evaluation
of the influence of COVID-19 on the Russian labour market, it may be concluded that
the impact of the pandemic on the sphere of labour relations has been ambiguous. On
the one hand, this impact may permit a “whitewashing” of the employment picture,
while on the other, it may lead to an increase in the flexibility of employment and to its
continued deformalisation. The outcome will depend both on the government’s social
policy, and also on the joint efforts of social partners.