The subject-matter of the article is the study of the peculiarities of the youth labour market in such a specific region of Russia as the city of Moscow. The topic of the work is connected to the adaptation of young specialists training system to the regional requirements of the employers of Moscow. The main hypothesis of the research assumes that Moscow is the atypical region of Russia and it is inexpedient to apply criteria and methodological approaches, which are standard for our country, to its labour market. As a method of the research, a selective survey of key employers of Moscow and respondents aged from 14 till 30 years has been used. The data of the sociological survey conducted by the authors have allowed to establish the following features of the researched region: a respectively low level of youth unemployment compared with the whole Russia; focusing of employers on such features of personnel as a good communicative skills learning ability, professional knowledge and competences. Moscow employers don’t pay significant attention to such characteristics of young specialists as language and computer skills, computer knowledge and the diploma of a prestigious educational institution. The main difficulties in finding employment for young specialists in the city of Moscow are: overestimated salary expectations; the weak professional training level and unwillingness, in fact, to work. As a result of the survey, the practical offers have been formulated. There are two directions of their application: the offers focused on the behaviour of the youth at a stage of their training and those offers focused on the increase of a practical component of the activity of professional educational institutions. The authors came to conclusions about the need of a deep orientation of educational institutions to the applied training for specialists, of practical workers for teaching special disciplines, the development by future specialists their abilities to present themselves and the results of their work to the professional environment (self-presentation skills) and to objectively estimate real opportunities of their employment.

The article reveals the issues of the global character of precarization and substantiates the criteria of precarious employment taking into account its special aspects in Russian Federation. The existing variability of approaches to the definition of precarious employment and the necessity to elaborate its optimal criteria in view of features of national labour have conditioned the relevance of the research. The paper involves international and Russian research on precarity and significantly uses the results of expert survey conducted by the authors in autumn 2016. The experts have considered groups of criteria based on: labour contract term, nature of labour relations, precarious terms of work. The experts also were asked to evaluate different forms of employment in which precarity may exert. As a result of the conducted research, we have elaborated the generalized criteria, which identify various forms of instability in labour market. The authors put forward a hypothesis that the criteria of the International Labour Organization (ILO) need to be adapted to the Russian realities when determining unstable employment, and the phenomenon of precarious employment has to be defined from the point of view of the probabilistic nature of its various manifestations. Based on the results of the research, the authors have qualified the relevance of International Labour Organization’s (ILO) criteria in the Russian context. We also have substantiated the probable character of precarious employment and defined probability of precarity exertion in the flexible forms of employment. The set of precarious employment criteria is specified in accordance with Russian context: we have clarified and complemented them, and defined the probability of precarity exertion in different forms of employment. The main result of the research is the structure of criterial standards, which identifies precarious employment.The conceptual issues and findings of the paper can be used as a theoretical and methodological basis to identify the scale of precarious employment in Russia as well as to evaluate precarity exertion in individual workplace.

The article aims at identifying the social structure and the inequality in monetary income of the population in Russia. identification of the social groups with different levels of material well-being in a society with a high inequality in the distribution of living standard is a relevant topic. The integration of normative and statistical methods allows to consider the limitations of the existing model of the distribution of cash income and adjust the boundaries of social groups with different levels of material well-being. At the same time, we stay within the criteria for the social standards of the differentiation of living standards. The authors have corrected the specific weight of the Russian social groups with different levels of material well-being. To define these social groups, we have applied the system of normative consumer budgets for different level of material well-being. This paper discovers the intervals for the levels of income and consumption, which are not in contradiction with the normative approach and existing conditions of the Russian economic development. These intervals are advisable for the identification of the social groups with different levels of life. The proposed tools allow to integrate the measurements into the international system and define the place of Russia in terms of economic inequalities among other countries. The authors have assessed the weights of the different social groups, their share in the total volume of monetary income and their polarization in terms of living standards. The main conclusions of the article can be used as a theoretical, methodological and practical basis for identifying social structures in terms of living standards, determining their numbers and economic inequality. The research results can be introduced into the statistical monitoring of the living standards of the population.

This article presents the results of the study on precarious employment, which represents a multilevel phenomenon of the instability in the socio-economic positions of workers. This phenomenon has various forms. Precarious employment can be identified both in terms of the quality and nature of employment contract, working conditions, and in terms of the standard of living of households of precarious workers, their self-perception and behaviour models in labour market and other spheres of life. The purpose of the research is to study precarious employment using sociological indicators. We characterize precarious employment of workers, in general, and also define their profiles. Depending on the type of contractual relations and the implementation of their requirements, the profiles of employees differ in the socio-demographic, age, educational and economic characteristics. As a research method, we chose a mass survey. The sampling frame is the Russian population aged from 15 to 72 years. The selection included 1002 respondents, which were quoted by sex, age, region and socio-demographic status on the labour market. During the survey, we investigated the various aspects of precarious employment including respect for the rights of employees, level of their income, prevalence of various forms of precarious employment by profession, sex-age structure. The results of the study are the demographic, socio-labour and economic characteristics of the surveyed population as well as the description of five profiles identifying the different groups of precarious workers. The results may be applied in social-labour relations regulated by contractual agreements and working conditions of employees. Restrictions are connected with the need to change the legislation and the enforcement of the current labour and civil legislation. Future research should be focused on the üreasons of the differentiation in precarious employment.

The article identifies the social structure of the Russian society by the level of material security. The research results proceed from the early authors’ studies on the analysis of the inequality of population distribution according to certain components of material security (income and housing security). The subject matter of this study was to identify the scale of social groups in the two-criteria model of social structure by the level of cash income and housing security. We proceeded from the hypothesis that compared with the single-criteria model of social structure, representing the integral distribution by the level of material security, its two-criteria model reveals social groups that significantly vary by the scale. The article presents the updated criteria of material security. We used these criteria to form social structure models. To update the criteria, we used mathematical models and informative indicators, which allowed to clarify the quantitative requirements for the level of cash income and housing parameters. Moreover, we relied on the foreign and domestic experience of research and development on this issue. However, we present for the first time a two-criteria model of the social structure of the Russian society by the level of material security based on the updated standards. For assessments and forming this model of social structure, we used the official statistics and the Russia Longitudinal Monitoring Survey, RLMS — HSE. The results can be applied in the development of targeted social policy measures, as well as may be in demand for further theoretical and methodological substantiation and practical research on material security and identification of social structures.

The article discusses how to ensure stable employment in single-industry towns. The Russian labour market has changed significantly due to the transition to a digital society, which transforms both communication technologies and the motivation of labour behaviour. A widespread introduction of non-standard forms of employment has both positive effects and negative risks. To minimize such risks, it is necessary to find mechanisms to increase the economic and social security of standard and non-standard employees. For examining precarious employment, we used studies of foreign and Russian authors, focusing on the characteristics of employment in single-industry towns. Despite the variety of conditions, which are necessary for the socio-economic development of single-industry towns and forms of employment, we hypothesise that it is possible to develop a unified approach, combining standard and non-standard employment. We demonstrated that the situation, on the labour market in single-industry towns remains tense. In such towns, the number of employed population is decreasing, while their working and employment conditions are getting worse. Thus, we suggest developing the policy of employment management in single-industry towns using a system of measures aimed at forming balanced standard and non-standard employment. At the regional level, the research results can be applied for elaborating proposals for reducing tension in labour markets of single-industry towns.