The evolution of legal and regulatory aspects in the fight against youth unemployment in Russia
Authors:   Tomsk State University, Brusyanina Мariya S. 
Published: October 2024

Some periods of the country’s social-economic development require the state to use a flexible approach to vulnerable categories in the labor market. That is why the labor market is the first to respond to the crisis processes which immediately affect the workers without experience, with a minimal work experience, and with insufficient professional competences. The youth category is, on the one hand, vulnerable, but, on the other hand, it is the group that most rapidly adapts to changing conditions. The state provides the young people’s socialization in employment through legislation, programs and other normative-legal acts in the field of employment. They are a “frame” to the values, motivation and actions of the youth in case of crises; otherwise, an increase in youth unemployment, informal employment, care in the informal sector is observed, yet contributing to the growth of initiatives to develop leadership and professional qualities. For the period from the 1990s to the present, key regulatory documents in the field of employment aimed at combating unemployment were analyzed, and also the characteristics and features of individual stages of development of the labor market in Russia, shortcomings and required changes in the legal field of youth employment were identified. Taking into account economic, social, and political events taking place in the country, five evolutionary stages in the development of the regulatory framework in the field of regulation of youth employment were identified. The first stage is 1990–1999, which is characterized by the formation of youth policy and the implementation of attempts to strengthen the position of the youth in the labor market. The second stage, 2000–2008, is associated with building a regulatory framework in the field of employment in the country, including the youth. The third stage is 2009–2013, when the basic legal framework in the field of employment was created and specialized documentation for young people in the field of supporting entrepreneurship, project development, etc. was beginning to be formed. The fourth period is 2014–2021. Its beginning saw an economic crisis, and the period is characterized not so much by an increase in unemployment among young people in comparison with the consequences of the 2008 crisis, but by a decreasing in income and a general decline in the population’s level and quality of life. The current fifth stage covers the period from 2021 and is currently ongoing; it is marked by a number of changes in the field of employment, active restructuring of the labor market, intensified measures to support young people, especially teenagers, strengthened career guidance activities, changes in the age limits for classifying the population as “youth” at the legislative level. The legal framework contains a significant number of innovations related to hybrid forms of employment, the introduction of labor market monitoring, forecasts and elimination of imbalances in certain sectors of the employment sector.