RESPONSE OF THE RUSSIAN LABOR MARKET TO THE "FIRST" AND "SECOND" WAVES OF THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC

Abstract

The paper provides some results of a study of changes that have occurred in the labor markets of Russian regions during the "first" and "second" waves of the COVID-19 pandemic. In particular, it is shown that in 2020 — 2021 there were transformations in the structure of employment of the population of the Russian regions, for example, the number of vacancies in the industries that were most severely affected by the introduction of restrictive measures in the economy decreased, the unemployment rate increased significantly. The negative consequences of the pandemic in one way or another manifested themselves in all Russian regions. However, in a number of regions, which even before the pandemic showed an unstable dynamics of socio-economic development, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic had a more significant negative impact. This indicates that during a pandemic, divergence processes have intensified in the national economy. At the same time, during the pandemic, some new forms of employment were developed, associated with the need to switch to a remote mode of work. We believe that these new forms of employment will remain relevant both in Russian and international practice even after the end of the pandemic. The paper also analyzes the main measures of state support for the population, small and medium-sized businesses, and migrants. It is shown that, in general, the measures of state support during the pandemic were timely and made it possible to avoid the collapse of the national economy. It is concluded that support measures should be more regionally differentiated in order to take into account the specifics of the economy of the regions of the Russian Federation.