Suchergebnisse

The article examines the social problems that arise due to the lack of legal mechanisms for regulating social and labor relations in a digitalizing labor market. The author emphasizes that the main result of the formation of the digital economy was the organizational restructuring of the labor market. The consequence of this is the transformation of traditional enterprises that hire staff on the terms of an employment contract into crowd-working platforms that "serve" an unlimited number of employers and provide them with the "services" of workers for the implementation of certain technological operations. The resulting relations are increasingly fragmented and atomized in comparison with the traditional social and labor relations. The legal form of exercising the employees' right to work is changing – from hired labor into self-employment. As a result of the ongoing transformations, labor relations are deprived of a social component based on the joint responsibility of employers and employees for the social well-being of the latter. Thus, the main legal and at the same time socioeconomic problem in the context of digitalization of the labor market is the "disappearance" (in the legal sense) of the subject that is responsible for the payment of insurance social contributions of digital (platform) workers. This is one of the main social challenges of the digital economy: it is becoming more difficult to fill social funds in the same volumes, to provide insurance for the employed against major social risks, which ultimately threatens the implementation of the social function of the state. The author emphasizes that the deterioration of the social situation is by no means due to the legal or technological complexity of creating effective mechanisms for regulating the labor market in the context of digitalization, it is an objective phenomenon. The crisis that has developed in the world economy prevents the resolution of legal conflicts arising in the field of employment. The problems of regulation of labor relations and the formation of mechanisms for the implementation of social policy in the context of a digitalizing labor market must be perceived only as separate "mosaic pieces" in a single canvas of social problems of modern society in the period of its transformation. When solving this problem, we can talk about choosing from two possible options: either about the return of relations in the sphere of labor to the field of social relations in the legal sense, or about recreating the state system of social protection of the population, taking into account the possibilities of its customization of the functions of public administration, which are given by the universal digitalization.

The subject of the research is the challenges of the digital economy for the employment sector in Russia. The need to reduce costs in the face of a deteriorating situation in the global economy is a factor in accelerating the digital transformation of employment in the country. The transformation is carried out through the automation of the main business processes, as well as through the development of platform employment formats. Specific features of the process of digital transformation of employment form the shape of the development of the Russian labor market in the post- Soviet period. Its main factor was the country's entry into the global system of division of labor, which led to the formation of the modern structure of employment. The economy of Russia, recognized as raw material, turned out to be "commercial" in terms of employment, since it was this industry that created the bulk of jobs during that period. The commerce sector, which had high growth potential in the early 1990s in Russia, provided jobs for all those labor resources that were released from the industry. However, at the moment this source has been exhausted. Digitalization threatens the most labor-intensive sectors of the Russian economy. Commerce turns out to be the first industry to undergo automation and digitalization of jobs. At the same time, the most massive professions (accountants, bank employees, HR specialists, salesmen, cashiers, couriers, security guards, secretaries, packers, call center workers, drivers) are under the threat of "disappearance", while new ones in demand by the market are more likely "unique" and they are mostly associated with robotization, digitalization and biotechnology. The unmet demand for these professions is a reflection of the complexities of training highly qualified interdisciplinary specialists and not a physical shortage of labor resources, and this is a serious challenge for the vocational education system. The study aims to gain a deeper understanding of the processes taking place in the social and labor sphere in Russia, to create a conceptual basis for the development of a socio-economic policy of the state that adequately responds to the challenges of the digitalization of the economy. Acknowledgements. The article was prepared within the project "Post-crisis world order: challenges and technologies, competition and cooperation" supported by the grant from Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation program for research projects in priority areas of scientific and technological development (Agreement № 075-15-2020-783).

This paper investigates emerging trends in the sector of employment and new profile of the market of employment. The author considers changes taking place as part of the deeper processes associated with the transformation of the modern social welfare state and leading to problems with the management of social and labor issues and threaten not only social but also political stability of modern nation-states. The new role of the social sectors analyzed in mitigating the negative effects occurring in the social and labor transformations.

The crisis affecting Russia provokes risks of rising unemployment, reducing real incomes, growing poverty, worsening demographic situation and other negative social trends. It accentuates acute structural problems challenging future human development, threatening with social and economic degradation of Russia. Workforce employment structure by economic activity and occupation lacks economic efficiency and social reasonability. Poor state of labor protection results in high incidence of work accidents. Obsolete labor regulations prevent the employment adjustment to reindustrialization shocks. Huge and unfair gaps in workers remuneration by economic activity, region and occupation cause high income inequality. Low level of remuneration in many economic activities, including those contributing to modernization of economy, leads to high working poverty and low attractiveness of innovative sectors to workers. Persistent low fertility, high mortality and low life-spam engender unsupportable demographic development and risks of restarting depopulation. Uncontrolled immigration of unqualified workforce from developing Asian countries is a source of growing social, ethno-cultural and political tensions. There are risks of growing emigration and turning flows of adaptive migrants away from Russia to EU. Structural and institutional reforms are to be realized to counteract these problems and risks and overcome crisis. Such measures are to get over the unjustified unbalances in employment and remuneration distribution, to form new competences and professional attitudes and raise stability of demographic development, supply of labor resources and boost their productivity. These changes may create social premises for transition to economic growth of new quality based on frontier technologies, wide innovations and high human development. At the same time high-tech economy development poses challenges of high unemployment, and labor market policies are to maintain balance between the needs of conserving stable employment and realizing economic transformations. Solution of many acute national problems should be based of complex approach, supposing package type of measures and simultaneity of social and economic reforms.

Cleavages between economic growth and social development have deepened in recent decades. This is expressed in the growth of multidimensional inequality and is perceived as a global violation of the social justice principles, which leads to the growth of socio-economic conflicts. These are obviously long-term trends allowing to talk about the complete reconfiguration of the existing social space. This process is largely out of control and has a serious destructive potential. The authors emphasize that the modern high-tech economy is unmanned; high quality and secure jobs with permanent contracts are becoming less affordable. As a result, we are witnessing a shift from principles of the previously established social protection institutions, where access to basic social goods is reduced for a large number of citizens. Reforming the system of state support for citizens becomes a worldwide trend, which leads to an increase in the cost of social services and brings into question the very existence of the welfare state. Thus, in the context of social landscape global transformations in the modern world, the social impact of the unemployment problem has become a key issue for researchers and policy-makers. At present, it is difficult to foresee whether the world will continue to develop within a global perspective and whether the international community will be able to produce common regulatory principles, or we are heading for a period of fragmentation and disunity. The problem is largely politically determined, and its solution depends on whether humanity will be able to overcome the difficult period of controversy and confrontation in the name of development, and if so, on what principles consensus can be reached. Acknowledgements. The research of Elena Sergeevna Sadovaya was conducted with financial support of a grant provided by the Russian Science Foundation, № 15-18-00021 – "Regulating interethnic relations and managing ethnic and social conflicts in the contemporary world: the resource potential of civic identity (a comparative political analysis)". The research was carried out at the Institute of World Economy and International Relations, Russian Academy of Sciences (IMEMO).