The Russian Labor Market: Paradoxes of Post-crisis Performance

Abstract

In the end of 2012 the Russian economy entered a period of permanently declining growth rates. The paper provides a thorough analysis of the labor market performance under these new conditions. We explain why despite economic stagnation its basic characteristics - labor force participation, employment, unemployment, hirings and separations, vacancies - remained at very favorable levels. Our analysis also indicates that though with a certain lag the labor market has started to react to negative economic shocks. We conclude that now effects of long-run structural shifts intervene with effects of short-run economic fluctuations and this will seriously affect the dynamics of the Russian labor market in the medium- and long-term perspectives.