Subject: [News] The Russian Workforce Today

From: Cyrill A. Buketov <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 05 Jun 94 12:46:00 GMT

From: kaskor (Cyrill A. Buketov)
Subject: The Russian Workforce Today

/* ����ᠭ� 12:44 pm  Jun  5, 1994 [email-masked] � glas:labr.cis */
/* ---------- "The Russian Workforce Today" ---------- */
       THE RUSSIAN WORKFORCE TODAY

       By Kirill Buketov

       During  the postwar period the tendency for the numbers of the
working class  to increase  continued. From  1951 through  1980,  the
annual influx  into the  cities  averaged  1.7  million  people.  The
workers gradually  became transformed  into the  most numerous social
class; by  the beginning  of the  1990s the  number of workers in the
Russian  Federation  reached  44.5  million  people  (Trud  v  RSFSR.
Statisticheskii sbornik.  Moscow, 1990,  p. 23).  Today  the  working
class makes up the majority of the employed population of the Russian
Federation. If  its share of the employed population in 1940 amounted
to 40  per cent,  by 1989  this figure  had reached  65.4  per  cent.
however, the  social potential of the working class was not realised.
While the  working class  was the main producer of material goods, it
was excluded  from the  functions of  administering and  disposing of
property, and from state power.

     Today, the overall population of Russia is almost 150 million. A
total of  72.3 million  people, or  96.4 per  cent of  the  potential
labour  force,   are  employed   in   the   economy   (L.Sosnovskaia.
Sovremennaia  situatsiia   v   oblasti   zaniatosti   i   perspektivy
stanovleniia rynka truda v Rossii. Voprosy ekonomiki 1993 no. 12). Of
these people,  58 million  are employed  directly in enterprises. The
overall number  of workers  is now  steadily decreasing; in 1992 this
contraction amounted to 3.9 per cent.

       The  average age of blue-collar and white-collar workers is 37
years, and  is steadily  falling, since  as production  declines, the
fall in  the number  of employed workers is taking place primarily at
the expense  of people  near pension  age. According  to data  of the
State Committee on Statistics, the bulk of the Russian labor force is
made up  of women,  who comprise  52 per  cent of all blue-collar and
white-collar workers.  Women make  up 46  per  cent  of  the  workers
employed in  industrial production.  Here, it is impossible to ignore
the sharp contrast in the wages of women workers compared to those of
their male  counterparts. Sociological  research shows  that  at  the
beginning of  the 1990s  25 per  cent of  women workers  received the
minimum wage, while among male workers this proportion did not exceed
10 per  cent. A total of 6 per cent of the male workers surveyed, but
only 0.8  per cent of women, were receiving what were considered high
wages. (N.N. Razuvaeva. Sotsial'no-politicheskoe polozhenie rabochikh
SSSR vo  2 polovine 1980-kh i nachale 1990-kh godov. Moscow, 1993, p.
82).

       The  main changes  in the structure of the workforce have been
seen in  the shift  of labor  power out  of the  state sector  of the
economy and  into the  private sector.  Thus in  1992 the  number  of
workers in  state enterprises  fell by  7.6 million people, while the
private sector  gained 6  million workers.  This shift  is  occurring
mainly as a result of the transformation of state into private (joint
stock) property,  and is  not leading  to substantial  changes in the
system of production.

     A relatively new phenomenon in the Russian economy is the growth
in the  number of  enterprises established  with the participation of
foreign capital.  In 1993 a total of 5,400 such firms were registered
in Russia;  in 1992  this figure was 4,500. In most cases these firms
were involved  in the extraction of raw materials, especially oil and
gas. However,  the role  of this  sector was  small;  the  number  of
workers employed  in it  was only 0.2 per cent of the total workforce
(Rossiiskie finansy  v 1993 g. Obzor Ministerstva Finansov Rossiiskoi
Federatsii. Voprosy ekonomiki, 1984 no. 1, p. 77).

     In its technological, productive and employment characteristics,
present-day Russia  is a  predominantly industrial  country. However,
the share of production of a scientific-industrial type is small. The
proportion of  workers in pre-industrial types of employment which do
not require  advanced modern  training was  very substantial.  At the
beginning of  the 1990s,  highly skilled workers made up only 4.9 per
cent of  the industrial  labor force  in Russia. Workers with medium-
level qualifications  made up  78.3 per  cent of  the total, and low-
skilled workers  16.8 per cent (Vestnik statistiki 1991 no. 6 p. 47).
Thus the  number of highly skilled workers with specialised secondary
education, and whose work had a high level of complexity and involved
the management  of complex  technological processes, amounted to only
about a  million people.  Three-quarters of the workers in transport,
construction and  agriculture were  performing manual labor. Overall,
35.3 per cent of Russian workers were performing manual labor (Trud v
SSSR. Statisticheskii sbornik. Moscow, 1988, p. 253). But despite the
large share  of low-qualified  labour, the number of specialists with
diploma qualifications (that is, with higher or specialised secondary
education)  remained   relatively  high.   The  proportions  of  such
employees per  thousand workers  were as  follows: in  industry,  226
people; in  agriculture, more  than 100;  in transport,  179; and  in
construction, 205.

       In the period of transition to the market economy, the working
class is  being splintered  and differentiated  into  various  social
strata and  groups. Meanwhile  a new  layer of  workers, employed  in
private and cooperative enterprises, is coming into being. The social
structure of  the working  class is growing more complex by the year.
At the  same time,  the working  class is  undergoing  a  process  of
regeneration as  a massive  social group  objectively united  by  the
common social interests of hired labor.

	18/04/1994