Professionals On The Russian Labor Market And The Problems Of Their Social Protection

Abstract

This article is devoted to the analysis of one of the most important segments of Russian labor market – professionals. Our main purpose was to determine the character of behavior of this social stratum, tendencies of its reproduction, its requirements for the character of labor and remuneration for it, level of the protection of social rights of professionals. We also tried to check the following hypothesis – in the considered segment of Russian labor market there is a lack of institutional mechanisms, which could provide a worthy place of professionals on the Russian labor market. This hypothesis is checked on the basis of both qualitative and quantitative data. In order to estimate the situation in the considered segment of Russian labor market, it is necessary first of all to define the group of professionals. In this connection we made an analysis of the main approaches of Russian and western economists and sociologists to the notions of “profession” and “professional”. In this paper we consider professionals within the framework of the western sociology of professions, which singles out occupations with high status – i.e. professions. Special focus was given to professionals as carriers of the human potential of the nation. On the basis of a number of Russian and western classificators we singled out those types of occupations which could be referred to professions (doctors, teachers, engineers, economists, librarians, programmers and so on). The quantitative analysis conducted by the author was based on the materials of the representative all-Russian survey, carried out in September-December, 2002 under the direction of professor O.I.Shkaratan. On the basis of this survey we made the analysis of the groups, referred to professionals. This analysis allowed us to make some conclusions about living standards of Russian professionals, character of their work and leisure activity, tendencies of the reproduction of the social status of two generations of professionals, level of their social protection and other conclusions. The qualitative analysis consisted of two stages of interviews carried out in 2003 in three cities: Moscow, St.Petersburg and Nizhni Novgorod. In-depth interviews with experts (actors of social policy, representatives of local authorities, directors of public funds, trade unions representatives, researchers and analysts and others) were aimed at the revelation of experts’ attitude towards the problem of social protection of professionals, towards the possibilities of professionals to influence the actors of social policy, the experts’ estimation of real behavior of professionals, their position on the labor market and so on. The key issues discussed in the personal interviews with professionals were: problems of their social protection, their strategies of behavior in critical situations, their estimation of the possibility to keep social status, their estimation of personal position on the labor market and so on. The results of this stage of the research were grouped according to different problems under analysis: criteria of professionalism and self-identification of professionals; position of professionals on Russian labor market; level and quality of life of professionals; adequacy of the state policy regarding professionals and the social protection of professionals. The main conclusion from the data of the survey and the analysis of the conducted interviews is the following – the most important cause of disadvantageous position of professionals on the labor market is the lack of institutional mechanisms, which influence the effective work of this segment of Russian labor market. As long as about 60-70% of professionals are hired workers occupied in the budget sphere, we suppose that the state should create such institutional mechanisms, which would be able to render necessary social protection to the representatives of this group, and would allow professionals to overcome the deficit of qualification necessary in new economy and to get the an adequate salary. The institutional reforms affecting the reproduction of the group of professionals is a necessary condition for the formation of information and civil society in Russia.