Many people ask this question, around which there are many myths. But still, why so many unemployed? Let's figure it out.

"You don't have a job because you're a bum!"

This is impossible, because Russia has very weak support for the unemployed. A non-working person in Russia will not be able to pay his bills, he will be evicted from his apartment, and he will become a homeless person. Therefore, a Russian will still work anywhere, in a non-permanent job, but he will look for money. What led to this? The capitalist system, where it is beneficial for the “employer” to keep some of the workers on the street: this pretty much knocks down the price of labor, that is, it makes it possible to lower wages. People are willing to work just to get something. And this situation is beneficial under capitalism to the ruling class

“You don’t have a job because of poor education”

Let's start with the fact that almost any education is good and necessary for society. Another question is whether this education is necessary for the capitalists? Businessmen from workers need only the education from which they can profit. Therefore, in a capitalist society, mainly applied disciplines are successful. Capital is invested in fundamental education (mathematics, physics, etc.) only when it sees huge profits in it in the future. Otherwise, this direction of capital is not necessary. It turns out that there is no work not because of a "bad" education, but because of the unfair capitalist system.

"You have high demands for work"

Favorite excuse of the bourgeoisie. Ideally, the capitalist wants the worker to work for free, which is what happens when workers are "thrown" for wages. In general, the bourgeois, of course, pays a salary, but very small, and at the same time he also believes that the workers should thank him for such generosity, and the insolent, who dared to consider that the salary is small, have “excessive demands”. We believe that the bourgeoisie has excessive demands here. They are already robbing the workers, taking away from them part of the value they have created, surplus value, which is a means of earning a bourgeois.

“You do not meet the requirements of the market and time”

There is no deception here. Capital really lives according to the laws of the market. Capital is always looking for new ways to make a profit, and old ones that are no longer profitable are discarded, along with thousands of jobs. These people are no longer needed by the bourgeois, and they vegetate in poverty. Under socialism, technological progress will also take place, obsolete production facilities will also be closed, but workers will not be abandoned, they will be retrained so that they can start working further. After all, they will be needed by society.

What does all of this mean?

Everything that happens is a consequence of the unjust capitalist system, the essence of which is private ownership of the means of production. Owners use the labor of workers who have nothing to sell but their own work force. Owners, capitalists, buy labor power from the worker (they pay wages), but they do not pay for the entire cost of labor power, but only part of it, the rest of the cost, surplus value, they take it into their pocket, this adds up to their wealth. It is beneficial for the bourgeoisie to have an army of unemployed, because it brings down the price of labor: the worker is afraid of being fired and agrees to work for a meager salary. In addition, if the workers nevertheless decide to fight for their rights, for example, go on strike, they can always be fired and take on new workers, or not fired, but temporarily use the unemployed as strikebreakers. Under capitalism there will always be unemployed.

What to do?

Only with the destruction of the capitalist mode of production through revolutionary political struggle are the conditions for the economic and political oppression of the working class eliminated. Only then is it possible to establish the power of the working class, dictatorship of the proletariat. Then the means of production are socialized, the former property of the capitalists becomes the property of the entire working class, and then the labor of the worker ceases to be a commodity, it becomes a contribution to socialist society, the goal of which is to satisfy the ever-growing needs of society. Only in this way will unemployment be eliminated. There is no other way.

Many people ask this question, around which there are many myths. But still, why so many unemployed? Let's figure it out.

"You don't have a job because you're a bum!"

This is impossible, because Russia has very weak support for the unemployed. A non-working person in Russia will not be able to pay his bills, he will be evicted from his apartment, and he will become a homeless person. Therefore, a Russian will still work anywhere, in a non-permanent job, but he will look for money. What led to this? The capitalist system, where it is beneficial for the “employer” to keep some of the workers on the street: this pretty much knocks down the price of labor, that is, it makes it possible to lower wages. People are willing to work just to get something. And this situation is beneficial for the ruling class under capitalism.

“You don’t have a job because of poor education”

Let's start with the fact that almost any education is good and necessary for society. Another question is whether this education is necessary for the capitalists? Businessmen from workers need only the education from which they can profit. Therefore, in a capitalist society, mainly applied disciplines are successful. Capital is invested in fundamental education (mathematics, physics, etc.) only when it sees huge profits in it in the future. Otherwise, this direction of capital is not necessary. It turns out that there is no work not because of a "bad" education, but because of the unfair capitalist system.

"You have high demands for work"

Favorite excuse of the bourgeoisie. Ideally, the capitalist wants the worker to work for free, which is what happens when workers are "thrown" for wages. In general, the bourgeois, of course, pays a salary, but very small, and at the same time he also believes that the workers should thank him for such generosity, and the insolent, who dared to consider that the salary is small, have “excessive demands”. We believe that the bourgeoisie has excessive demands here. They are already robbing the workers, taking away from them part of the value they have created, added value, which is a means of earning the bourgeoisie.

“You do not meet the requirements of the market and time”

There is no deception here. Capital really lives according to the laws of the market. Capital is always looking for new ways to make a profit, and old ones that are no longer profitable are discarded, along with thousands of jobs. These people are no longer needed by the bourgeois, and they vegetate in poverty. Under socialism, technological progress will also take place, obsolete production facilities will also be closed, but workers will not be abandoned, they will be retrained so that they can start working further. After all, they will be needed by society.

What does all of this mean?

Everything that happens is a consequence of the unjust capitalist system, the essence of which is private ownership of the means of production. Owners use the labor of workers who have nothing to sell but their own work force. Owners, capitalists, buy labor power from the worker (they pay wages), but they do not pay for the entire cost of labor power, but only part of it, the rest of the cost, added value, they take it in their pocket, this is their wealth. It is beneficial for the bourgeoisie to have an army of unemployed, because it brings down the price of labor: the worker is afraid of being fired and agrees to work for a meager salary. In addition, if the workers nevertheless decide to fight for their rights, for example, go on strike, they can always be fired and take on new workers, or not fired, but temporarily use the unemployed as strikebreakers. Under capitalism there will always be unemployed.

What to do?

Only with the destruction of the capitalist mode of production through revolutionary political struggle are the conditions for the economic and political oppression of the working class eliminated. Only then is it possible to establish the power of the working class, dictatorship of the proletariat. Then the means of production are socialized, the former property of the capitalists becomes the property of the entire working class, and then the labor of the worker ceases to be a commodity, it becomes a contribution to socialist society, the goal of which is to satisfy the ever-growing needs of society. Only in this way will unemployment be eliminated. There is no other way.

Despite a noticeable increase in the number of vacancies across the country, Russians are finding it increasingly difficult to find a job. On average, it takes up to seven months for a temporarily unemployed person to find a suitable position. It is especially difficult for women in the age range from 30 to 49 years old, the main clients of employment services. This was stated in an interview with Rossiyskaya Gazeta Deputy Head of the Ministry of Labor Denis Vasiliev.

The deputy minister directly linked the unwillingness of Russians to fill most of the vacancies with the poor quality of the jobs offered. According to the ministry, the employment service is most often contacted by those who are faced with the difficulties of their own social and labor implementation: the disabled, people entering the labor market for the first time, people of pre-retirement age.

The situation does not in the least improve the circumstance indicated by Mr. Vasiliev that "there are always vacancies, if not permanent, then at least temporary, for example, public works." How willingly the Russian unemployed go to public works, the official did not explain. He limited himself only to stating the disproportions in the labor market, professional and territorial.

Explaining another disproportion - why officially registered unemployment in Russia is five times lower than its indicator calculated according to the methodology of the International Labor Organization, Denis Vasiliev noted:

- Indeed, officially registered unemployment is now 1.3%. And its level according to the ILO methodology is 5.6%. But there is no tragedy in this. These indicators are of a different nature.

In many countries, the real unemployment rate is higher than it is shown by employment services, the representative of the Ministry of Labor added. The fact that in our country this discrepancy is so obvious, Vasiliev rightly explained by the fact that "our employment services are less active and efficient than they could be."

However, there is another reason for the current situation on the labor market in Russia - the opacity of this very market. Prestigious and highly paid positions are often filled without competition, more and more often on the basis of nepotism. And even on a corruption basis, that is, for money.

Therefore, only vacancies that are not in demand among the unemployed are presented in the public domain. Especially for those who, having a job, would like to change it to a more worthy one in every sense.

…At the end of March 2016, the marketing company Nielsen announced the results of its sociological study, according to which more than 90% of young professionals in Russia consider the possibility of career growth the most important criterion in choosing an employer. In this regard, for 57% of respondents, the most preferred place of employment is, not surprisingly, the oil and gas sector.

In other sectors of the “national economy”, the views of those who would like to find a job with clear life prospects, according to Nielsen, are focused, in particular, on innovative areas. Thus, 30% of respondents believe that IT technology has a future. And if you systematically specialize in this direction, then it’s really possible to make a career and make decent money.

In addition to the mentioned oil and gas sector, aviation and aerospace instrumentation (50%) and, surprisingly, professional military service (47%) began to acquire a stable positive reputation in the eyes of those seeking to make a career.

Such areas as housing and communal services (only 28% of those who want to go there to work) and healthcare (23%) are chronically unpopular for ambitious workers.

“It somehow escapes from sociological studies of recent times that now, by all measures, a very significant part of young Russians are striving to get into large state-owned companies, and not necessarily only in Gazprom,” commented a senior researcher at the Institute of Economic Policy named after V.I. Gaidar Sergei Zhavoronkov. “These state-owned companies have very high salaries. At the same time, as a rule, there is no what is called "hard discipline". For non-dusty work, an ordinary worker here can earn from 100 to 200 thousand rubles a month without much effort. But there are practically no corresponding open vacancies in the labor market.

Meanwhile, the results of the April VTsIOM poll show that every second Russian (51%) is afraid of difficulties in finding a new job. And only one in four saves money in case of dismissal.

The fact that relatives and friends have lost their jobs over the past six months was reported to VTsIOM employees by 27% of respondents. In April 2015, the corresponding figure was slightly lower - 29%.

- Underemployment, the data on which the Ministry of Labor "monitors" on a weekly basis, is, in fact, the same unemployment, - says a deputy of the State Duma of the Russian Federation, Doctor of Economics Valery Rashkin. - It is incomprehensible the slyness of government structures that part-time and send people on unpaid vacations, the duration of which is regulated only by the arbitrariness of the boss, either do not consider unemployment at all, or call it “soft”. In addition, the legalization of such labor relations inevitably leads to an increase in shadow factors - the growth of "black cash", tax evasion.

Downtime in production, economically paralyzing enterprises, does not always have a causal relationship with the current crisis. Often, the employer, nodding at the crisis and taking advantage of lack of control, begins to optimize funds through illegal dismissals or by shifting financial difficulties onto the shoulders of the employees themselves, cutting off their salaries previously agreed upon under contracts, sending people out on unpaid vacations, while not forgetting to calculate indicators for profitability.

“It would, of course, be correct to classify the process of unemployment and the unemployed themselves according to the ILO criteria,” says the director of the FBK Institute for Strategic Analysis, Doctor of Economics Igor Nikolaev. - And the ILO assumes operating with the total number of unemployed, and not just their official part.

Here, for example, a person is looking for a position and is ready to go to work within ten days. According to the ILO criteria, he is unemployed.

The problem of vacancies, outlined in the reference of the Ministry of Labor, rests on the problem of employment, which today more and more often appears truncated, incomplete. This has a negative impact on the wages of workers. Moreover, formally, as is known, a person in such a “vacancy” is not considered unemployed in the Russian Federation.

In the West, a person would prefer to quit such a job, register with an employment center and then receive a guaranteed benefit. We have a different situation: a person agrees to such a regime in order to work 2-3 days a week, while receiving much smaller amounts than if he worked with optimal workload.

“Today we have to talk not only about vacancies that people are reluctant to take, or about unemployment itself, but also about the quality of employment,” says Deputy Director of the Institute of World Economy and International Relations of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Doctor of Economics Evgeny Gontmakher. - Employment is often, as it were, in the reports, but it covers the number of nominally employed, working part-time and in other cases receiving 10-15 thousand rubles a month. That is, according to external signs, people work, but, in essence, they are superfluous in the labor market.

Undoubtedly, a factor of social tension is latent unemployment, when many do not register at employment centers, having intermittent, casual earnings.

There are really a lot of vacancies, mainly in large cities. Another thing is that the jobs offered are mostly unattractive, associated with unskilled, heavy physical labor. And besides, they are also underpaid.

How dangerous is this situation? The fact that in Russia at the moment there are a lot of bad, let's say, jobs. They are bad because they promise low labor productivity, low wages, and everything that signals the appropriate level of the economy as a whole.

The way out is the need for structural restructuring of the economy. I would like to note that supporters constantly opposing each other in the government do not get tired of talking about this, relatively speaking, Alexei Kudrin and Sergei Glazyev.

Take at least one of the May (2012) decrees Vladimir Putin on the creation of 25 million modern, decently paid jobs for Russians. After all, it was a great idea! What hinders its implementation?

In addition, we need to constantly and systematically take care of a favorable investment climate, ensuring the rights of private property.

"SP": - In your opinion, why do the Russians, knowing that there is a job with which they could well cope, are still in no hurry to snap up vacancies, preferring to stand in the employment center in anticipation of a "gift of fate" or earn odd jobs?

— Fellow citizens are quite spoiled in this sense. Let's admit that a significant part of them have a decent education. Not necessarily higher, but at least quite high-quality vocational education. The factor of personal requests also makes itself felt. These demands are lower than in Europe, but, nevertheless, higher than an average real job in Russia can give.

Even under conditions, the unemployment rate in Russia is not yet as high as once predicted. However, the labor market faces a number of structural weaknesses, such as rising youth unemployment.

Statistics

Frightening, although these figures have not yet exceeded the critical norm. received by Rosstat in August 2017. According to official figures, the working population was 78 million, and the number of unemployed persons was at least 3.8 million. Compared to previous years, the overall rate fell below 5%. But let's find out how critical these are and when it's time to start sounding the alarm.

Unemployment in a country is measured as follows: an index is used that is calculated by dividing the number of unemployed by the total labor force in the country, and then multiplying this figure by 100. As a rule, the labor force consists of people who are young enough and suitable for any job, including physical.

The unemployment rate in Russia is an important economic factor. However, the debate about what leads to this problem continues to this day. But economists are sure of one thing - unemployment, as a rule, appears in bad times for the country, that is, during a recession (a decrease or slowdown in economic growth) and a crisis.

Trouble in the country

As for other important things in Russia, inflation has been declining for several years, while real (inflation-adjusted) gross domestic product is still rising after a sharp decline in 2009.

As in most other countries, Russia's economy is oriented mainly towards services and various industries, while the agricultural sector plays almost no role, especially when it comes to the new generation gross domestic product. Consequently, the vast majority of the labor force is concentrated in the two sectors indicated above. But Russia is still among the top wheat exporters worldwide, ranking third behind the US and Canada.

Comparison with previous years: rise and fall

Unemployment in Russia is a problem that drags on from year to year. If we take statistics for the last 10 years, then the country has not yet been selected from the 5% limit. At the same time, the crisis moment came in 2009, when the index was equal to 8.3%. For more accurate clarity, we suggest that you study the table, which shows brief statistics on unemployment in Russia by year:

Terminology

An unemployed person is someone who does not work and is usually actively looking for a job. When calculating the index, people who are retired, those who have a disability, are on maternity leave or study in any institutions, who have not reached a certain age, are not taken into account.

Cause

Unemployment in Russia should not surprise anyone, because almost all countries in the world face this problem. For example, in Turkmenistan the index reaches 70%, in Nepal - 46%, in Kenya - 42%, even in Greece and Spain this figure varies from 27% to 28%. Let's find out the main causes of unemployment in Russia:

1. People leave their former place of work in order to find a better paid, more convenient one.
2. People were fired and now they cannot recover.
3. The company has cut its workforce. This may be due to the fact that the country's economic growth is slowing down, most goods or services are not in demand.
4. They went on maternity leave, entered an educational institution, did not reach working age.
5. The position of the person was distributed to other employees.
6. Too many people. This factor plays a big role, especially in small towns, where there is much more demand than supply.
7. Low wages, harsh working conditions.
8. Scientific and technological progress, where human power is replaced by robots, machines.
9. There are not enough jobs, both in individual regions and throughout the country as a whole.

Data

Between the end of summer and the beginning of autumn 2014, when the economic crisis in Russia was just beginning to develop, oil prices began to fall rapidly, followed by the ruble, and inflation began to rise. Not surprisingly, many experts predicted that the Russian population would inevitably face the severe scourge of mass unemployment.

The logic of such forecasts was clear - the country was suffering from a severe economic downturn, which had an impact on almost all sectors of the economy. The state obviously did not have enough resources, as in 2008-2009 during the previous financial crisis, to ensure large-scale investments in all areas affected by the crisis.

Today, almost four years after the crisis began, the skeptics' predictions have not come true. It seemed that under these conditions, the natural reaction of troubled industries would be to lay off en masse to cut costs and save money. But neither in 2015, nor in 2016, nor in 2017 did this happen. According to statistics, unemployment in Russia has never been such a global problem as in 2009. For all the years, the index has almost never exceeded a very modest figure of 6%. And (compared to world statistics) this indicator is worthy of praise.

Let's take an example. The unemployment rate reached almost 10% in the US (during the peak years). The average unemployment rate in the EU is currently below 10%, which is considered a success as almost 8 years ago the index topped 12%. At the height of the economic crisis in countries such as Spain, Greece, Italy, this figure reached 40%. But there is still cause for concern. Already today, in these countries, approximately one in five people finds themselves without work. How did Russia manage to avoid such a fate?

What makes Russia different

According to Tatyana Maleva, director of the Institute for Social Analysis and Forecasting at the Russian Academy of National Economy and Public Administration under the President of the Russian Federation (RANEPA), since the 1990s, Russia has been developing its own model of the labor market, which differs from the Western one.

While in most countries of the world companies reduce production and headcount during times of economic turmoil, in Russia, fearing an aggravation of social tensions, all market participants behave in a completely different way. Instead of laying off inefficient workers, employers prefer to cut wages. In addition, the Russian labor market resorts to a system of disguised unemployment, in which workers are transferred to a shorter week, sent on unpaid leave, or their hours and production rates are reduced.

Workers happily accept this system, and all because of the small number of viable alternatives - the risk of not finding a new job scares people even in large metropolitan areas. The state is also quite satisfied with this behavior of employers and employees, as it ensures that there will never be a large influx of people seeking unemployment benefits in Russia. This could undermine an already weakened budget.

The amount of unemployment benefits in Russia

Today, the minimum monthly unemployment payment is 850 rubles (about $15 at current exchange rates) for first-time job seekers in the first year after being fired for misconduct, and the maximum is 4,900 rubles (about $85). Obviously, such small amounts are not enough to survive, so they do not provoke people to register as officially unemployed. There are just over three million such people in Russia today.

One big advantage of such a labor market model that suits everyone is that it makes it possible for society to avoid tensions and political outbursts. However, the main drawback is that, as a result, our country has an economy suffering from sluggish processes. That is, in an environment in which everyone has job security, no one has an incentive to fight for jobs.

Lower salary

Today, the unemployment rate in Russia is 5.3%, which corresponds to about 4 million people. At the same time, real wages fell by almost 10% last year. This is the reason why the country did not experience a sharp increase in unemployment - the decline in real wages testified to this process.

Employers continue to respond to the crisis in this way. Over the past year, more than 24% of the families surveyed confirmed that their wages were reduced, 19% of citizens were delayed in payment, and 9% had their working hours reduced, they were forced to take unpaid leave or were fired.

Temporary employment

Since unemployment in Russia remained practically unchanged in 2018, people began to look for part-time or temporary employment, which would bring a little more income than government assistance. At the end of May 2016, according to the Ministry of Labor, this sector of the labor market grew by 18 percent compared to the same period last year. Overall, the number of part-time workers has risen to 41,500 over the past year and is now over 300,000. This is not so much for such a large country as Russia, but it is tantamount to the population of a large city.

The most important thing is that the number of temporary workers is growing, there is a certain trend here. Yes, employers are trying to avoid mass layoffs, obviously realizing that if this happens at their enterprise, then the state will obviously not be happy about this. Especially when it comes to elections, because then no one is interested in the appearance of hotbeds on the map of Russia.

At the same time, the economic crisis is not over yet, GDP continues to decline, although not as sharply as in the period from 2014 to 2016. Most businessmen are still faced with the need to optimize their costs, including wages. Otherwise, their business simply cannot survive. Therefore, decisions are currently being made that provide for the transfer of workers to various forms of part-time employment. Thus, Russian businesses reduce their costs by resorting to this method.

Finally

Russia's main problem is that our market creates very few new jobs. Its peculiarity is only that it provides a high level of employment and a low level of unemployment due to highly differentiated wages, as well as a significant share of low-paid employment. At the same time, the demand for temporary employment is growing in the labor market, where movers, laborers, repairmen, drivers, packers, sellers, cleaners and cooks are required.

Summing up, we can say that the Russian labor market was able to respond to the challenges of the economic crisis, using its own model, in which natural disadvantages were turned into temporary advantages. Reducing wages, transferring people to temporary work, reducing working hours, intensifying internal labor migration, transferring people to remote work - these processes are nothing but temporary measures. But they allow many people to stay afloat with at least some source of income during difficult economic times.

Recently, the media published an interview with Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, dedicated to the results of the government's work in the outgoing year. In particular, the topic of labor migrants in the Russian economy was touched upon. I would like to make my comments on this.

The scale of unused labor resources: official statistics. Here is the prime minister's key phrase: “Only a dishonest person says that we can do without an additional influx of labor resources now. Russia is too big and we need additional labor resources.” The words are more than strange. Given that we have high unemployment in our country, and the government periodically declares the need to create new jobs.

What is the scale of unemployment in our country? Even among our departments there is no unanimous opinion and common assessments on this matter. The Federal Service for Labor and Employment provides unemployment statistics based on the number of applications received from the unemployed in the territorial bodies of the Federal Service. Over the past decade, Federal Service data (which are published on a monthly basis) have fluctuated between 1 and 2 million people. Obviously, these are grossly underestimated figures, since far from all unemployed people file applications for unemployment benefits and job searches.

Rosstat compiles its own statistics, which are based on periodic surveys (unemployed are those who, in their answers, report that they do not have a job, but are actively looking for one). Over the past decade, Rosstat's unemployment figures have fluctuated between 5 and 6 million people. Let us take into account that the number of employees in our country is at the level of about 70 million people. Consequently, the average unemployment rate has been about 7% in the last decade. True, Rosstat reports that in 2012 the unemployment rate dropped to 5.5%. However, this is also a lot. And besides, this is the "average temperature in the hospital." In several regions, unemployment is below the average level (for example, in the Moscow region - 2.9%, in the Leningrad region - 3.2%), but in a number of regions its level is extremely high. I will name only those regions in which it is above 10%: Ingushetia - 47.7; Chechnya - 29.8; Tyva - 18.4; Kalmykia - 13.1; Dagestan - 11.7; Altai - 11.6; Trans-Baikal Territory - 10.6.

It is easy to see that the level of unemployment in the national republics is prohibitively high. This is no longer just an economic problem of "underutilization of labor resources", but a socio-political problem, and an explosive one at that, especially when it is superimposed on the problems of national relations.

The problem of unemployment is especially acute in the so-called single-industry towns, the number of which in Russia is over 330 (every third city). And youth unemployment! In the country, according to Rosstat, the average unemployment rate among young people aged 15-24 last year was 16.8%. Among urban youth - 14%; among rural areas - 23.5%. The coefficient of exceeding the unemployment rate among young people on average in the age group of 15-24 years compared with the unemployment rate of the adult population aged 30-49 years is 3.2 times (among the urban population - 3.5 times, the rural population - 2.5 times ). It is well known that employers do not like to hire young people without experience. There is no need to prove that youth unemployment deprives the country of the future.

On the real scale of unemployment in Russia. I would like to draw attention to the fact that even Rosstat underestimates the real scale of this disaster. In particular, there is the so-called hidden unemployment. For example, people with part-time employment (most often not of their own free will) are no longer considered unemployed. We have a disproportionately high level of young people who go to universities after school. So, in 2010, the number of students in Russia was 61 per 1,000 people. For comparison: in Switzerland - 31, the Netherlands - 38, Austria - 37, Japan - 31. training (I know this firsthand as a teacher) only delays the moment when a young person joins the army of the unemployed. But it helps Rosstat to improve the picture of employment. And our bureaucracy! Today there are about 2.5 million officials at all levels of government. At least half of them pretend to work. There is an imitation of labor activity.

In 2011, unemployment was measured in Russia according to the methodology of the well-known sociological firm Gallup (measurements were simultaneously carried out in dozens of other countries). This measurement showed that unemployment in our country is much higher than that reported by Rosstat. The Gallup methodology takes into account as unemployed even those who work, but work partially and would like to have a fuller load. So, real unemployment, according to Gallup, in Russia in 2011 was above 20%. Among women, it was estimated at 22%, among men - at 19%. It turns out that real unemployment in Russia is 3-4 times higher than the figures of Rosstat.

Estimates of real unemployment have been made in many other countries. Its level was lower than in Russia in such countries as Finland, the Netherlands, Denmark, Israel, Belgium, Slovakia and Sweden. There are a number of countries in which real unemployment is higher than in Russia, but one must keep in mind the absolute size of the army of the unemployed. Even according to Rosstat, this is 5-7 million people. In absolute terms, the officially declared number of unemployed in Russia is the largest among all countries that maintain official employment and unemployment statistics. With the exception of the United States, but, as you know, in the United States the total population is more than twice the population of Russia.

It is surprising that the problem of unemployment in our country, which today directly or indirectly affects not even millions, but tens of millions of Russian citizens, was, in fact, bypassed by the Prime Minister. True, a little earlier (in the article “The time for simple decisions has passed”), he put forward a kind of “recipe” for the employment of our citizens, namely, to increase their “mobility”. That is, our citizens were asked to turn into internal migrants. Either wander around the country alone, or with the whole family. The concept of "home" in the conditions of building "wild capitalism" becomes superfluous and even harmful.

About the so-called dirty work. Let me quote one more quote from our Prime Minister: “But we need both those who build and those who are engaged in less skilled labor. Look, our unemployment is small, but it is not growing due to the fact that a large number of people come to us to work in those places that our people are not very willing to go to - work in housing and communal services, work as janitors or at a construction site . Unemployment is not growing simply because our people are not ready to do it and do not want to.”

The Prime Minister's thesis that due to the arrival of migrant workers, unemployment is not growing in our country is very strange. To begin with, I want to draw attention to the fact that the citizens of Russia, in the opinion of the Prime Minister, do not want to engage in certain types of labor activity. This is a very serious issue that should be of concern to the prime minister and other government officials. Some types of labor activity are called “dirty”, they say, our fellow citizens avoid them.

Let's figure it out. In fact, these are not “dirty”, but dangerous types of work. The situation in many industries today is simply appalling. And this is not a secret. Let's turn to official statistics. Here are the relative indicators of the number of employees (in relation to the total number of employees in industry, construction, transport and communications) who work in unfavorable conditions (as of the end of 2012 in percent).

Employed in conditions that do not meet the hygienic standards of working conditions - 31.8%. Among them: those working under the influence of increased levels of noise, ultrasound, infrasound - 17.7%; working under the influence of an increased level of vibration - 5%; working in conditions of increased dust content in the air of the working area - 5.3%; working in conditions of increased gas content in the air of the working environment - 5.1%; employed in hard work - 13%; working on equipment that does not meet labor safety requirements - 0.5%; employed in jobs associated with increased intensity of the labor process - 9.7%.

It turns out that in total more than half of the workers employed in the real sector of the economy (industry, construction, transport and communications) are forced to risk their health and even life. Often we are talking about a threat to the lives of not only the workers themselves, but also other people. For example, bus drivers can be classified as workers associated with increased intensity of the labor process. Their overvoltage often ends in car accidents and the death of passengers and pedestrians. Why does the prime minister's report say nothing about what measures have been taken to re-equip production in order to improve working conditions, how many enterprises have been fined or closed for gross violations of labor standards?

However, the question is rhetorical. Not said because nothing has been done. There are also Rosstat data on this subject. Instead of improving working conditions, the authorities prefer to use living "robots" that are ready to work in any conditions.

Russian capitalism as a kind of slavery. Our citizens are also deprived of the opportunity to work because they do not receive proper remuneration for their work. And sometimes they don't get any at all. Wage arrears, according to Rosstat, as of November 1, 2013 amounted to exactly 3 billion rubles. Considering that the total number of employed in Russia is 71.5 million people, the average for one employed person is 43 rubles. But this is the same “average temperature”. If the prime minister, ministers, officials of various ranks are paid their salaries without delay, then at some enterprises payments are not made for many months, and the debt per employee (even at relatively low salaries) amounts to hundreds of thousands of rubles.

It's no secret that our citizens are ready to work even for a very modest remuneration. Even in the so-called dirty industries. But their employers will never hire them, because it is easier not to pay or underpay an immigrant, especially an illegal one who is deprived of any rights.

In Moscow, a Russian person cannot get a job as a janitor, because such an employee will have to pay 100% of the salary, the amount of which is set by the city authorities. And the immigrant can be paid only a part. The rest goes into the pockets of thieving officials. Therefore, the government's calls to fight corruption while maintaining the current course of using labor immigrants is turning into an undisguised farce. And attracting immigrants increases unemployment among the local population, contrary to Medvedev's assertion.

The topic of labor resources, employment and labor migrants, touched upon in the answers of the Prime Minister, is very broad and diverse. I touched on only some aspects, leaving behind the scenes cultural and religious, criminogenic, geopolitical and other aspects. Let me summarize my reasoning. The system of labor relations, which the Prime Minister substantiates in his interview-report, is aimed at serving the interests of “wild” Russian capitalism, which needs the cheapest and even slave labor force. In fact, we are dealing with a symbiosis of capitalism and slavery, slightly disguised. Accordingly, the slave labor system eliminates the need and possibility of any innovation, which our Prime Minister is so fond of talking about.

At one time, slave labor in the Roman Empire led to the spiritual, moral and even physical decomposition of free citizens - first the aristocracy, and then the common people (plebs). Then the empire itself perished. Continuing the policy of attracting labor migrants can lead to the same tragic consequences for our country.

Before I published my comments, the Prime Minister issued a new portion of distortions related to the economic situation in the Russian Federation. These distortions concern the role and place of industry in the Russian economy. Here is a summary of this speech in Rossiyskaya Gazeta on December 10, 2013. "Our plans. They are to create and modernize 25 million modern jobs by 2020 and, most importantly, to increase labor productivity by 50% in five years. Each opening of a new industrial enterprise is an important step towards achieving this ambitious goal,” Medvedev said in his video blog. He did not agree with the opinion that Russia is strong only in oil and gas. “In fact, this statement does not reflect the real picture of our economy, which is based on industrial production, where industrial production plays a very significant role,” the prime minister said.

I'm not even going to discuss the grandiose plans for the "industrialization" of Russia proclaimed by Medvedev. As they say, no comment. I will pay attention only to the last part of the note from Rossiyskaya Gazeta. Medvedev invites us to look at "the real picture of our economy" through his eyes. I don’t know what eyes he looks at it with, but as an economist, I first of all turn to statistics. It is clear that it also distorts the real picture, but nevertheless allows us to evaluate the long-term trends of economic processes. Below I propose a summary table built on Rosstat data.

As can be seen, over the years of “reforms”, the share of industry in the Russian economy has been steadily declining both in GDP and in employment. If we compare the indicators of the share of industry with the USSR during the “stagnation”, then this share in GDP and in employment in 2012 was almost two times lower than in 1980. For every opening of a new industrial enterprise, there were 10 closing ones. The retirement of industrial fixed assets has exceeded and exceeds their renewal and the commissioning of new funds. The share of manufacturing products in the country's exports is steadily falling. I don't want to bore the reader with statistics (mind you - official ones!), which testify to the degradation of industry. An additional impetus to the destruction of industry was given by the country's accession to the WTO last summer.

I want to draw your attention to the fact that the process of degradation of the industry continued and continues while Dmitry Anatolyevich was in the highest posts of state power in the Russian Federation (President of the Russian Federation, Prime Minister). As can be seen from the table, in 2005–2012, the share of industry in GDP decreased from 37.3% to 34.1%. At the same time, the share of the extractive industry (oil and gas) decreased slightly - from 8.6% to 8.2%, and the share of the manufacturing industry more significantly - from 28.6% to 25.9%. The share of industry in employment fell from 20% to 17% between 2005 and 2012. At the same time, the share of the extractive industry increased from 1.8% to 2%, while the share of the manufacturing industry decreased from 18.2% to 15%. It is no longer necessary to say that the presence of foreign investors in the equity capital of many industrial enterprises has increased over the indicated period of time. That is, not only the degradation of the industrial potential of Russia is taking place, but at the same time the remnants of industry are coming under the control of foreign capital. The prime minister avoids all these "uncomfortable" questions.

Valentin Katasonov