Statistical Assessment of The Development of Digital Skills of The Employed Population in The Russian Federation
Authors: Prokhorov P. E. 
Published: June 2022

Quantitative measurement of the competencies of the employed population in the use of modern technologies makes it possible to characterize the resources for the development of the digital economy and the factors for the spread of digital innovations in the economic activities of enterprises in terms of the quality of human capital. Many empirical studies and analytical reports characterize digital skills using measures of the number of specialists in the field of information and communication technologies. However, this approach is limited, since the spread of digital business models and the introduction of technologies in all areas of the economy have increased the skill complexity of work in a wide range of occupations. Now, the personnel of the digital economy can be considered not only ICT specialists, but also those employees who intensively use computer and computing equipment and software systems.

Purpose of the study. The purpose of this study is to develop a methodology for quantifying the skills of using digital technologies among the employed population based on official statistical methodology, testing it on real data, as well as analyzing trends in the development of digital skills in recent years, including for various socio-economic and demographic categories of the employed population.

Materials and methods. To achieve this goal, international and domestic experience in building summary indicators of competencies necessary for the operation of computer equipment and work with standard and specialized programs and applications was studied. A comparative analysis of such approaches has been carried out. The index method was used to calculate the digital skills indicator. Grouping methods, tabular and graphical methods, dynamics analysis methods, distribution variation analysis methods were used to form summary results and analyze them.

The information source of the study was microdata from sample surveys of the Federal State Statistics Service. The indicators are presented in the annual frequency for 2016-2020 for the Russian Federation.

Results. The advantages and disadvantages of digital skills assessment approaches were identified. A methodology has been developed for calculating the weighted average level of digital skills of the employed population. The calculation was carried out using this method based on the microdata of sample surveys for 2020. The changes that have taken place in the distribution of employees by levels of digital skills have been studied. The dynamics of the level of digital skills is analyzed, including by age groups, professional groups and types of economic activity.

Conclusion. The results of the analysis of the development of digital skills can be used in studies on modeling the relationship between the level of user competencies of personnel in the digital environment and the development of the digital economy in order to study the features and patterns of digital transformation of economic activity in the Russian Federation in a deeper and more comprehensive way.