Russian Professionals: Problems of Definition, Factors in the Quality of Human Capital, and Group Structure

Abstract

As professionals increasingly become a key social group, understanding what determines the  quality of their human capital and their socio-economic success is of particular importance. This  article uses RLMS HSE data from 2018–2022 to demonstrate that selecting professionals for socio-structural analysis cannot be effectively achieved using the standard ISCO-08 classification. This article justifies potential recoding principles for this classifier (e.g., including all employees whose work requires higher education, regardless of the employment sector; including only those whose work is non-physical; excluding individuals whose primary function is managing others) and describes the outcomes of the recoding. The study highlights the heterogeneity among professionals in terms of the quality of  their primary rent-bearing asset—human capital—in its classical and extended interpretations. The  analysis identifies seven distinct groups of professionals, each differing in the quality of their human capital and the extent to which they can apply their education in their work. The article characterizes each group’s size, specific features, and the factors contributing to variations in  salary levels and the quality of human capital among its members. The premium for a willingness to acquire new specializations exists only for Russian professionals with high-quality human capital. For others, changing specializations often results in lower income and is typically driven by necessity, reflecting imbalances in the economy’s structure and human resources in local labor markets. The article concludes that the relatively low socio-economic standing of many professionals is not primarily due to family issues or unreasonably low wages, but rather to the characteristics of their human capital, which significantly affects their position in the labor market and economic relations overall. Additionally, the specificities of local labor markets influence the structure of  the professional group in a given location and either encourage or discourage its representatives from enhancing their human capital.