Contradictions and tensions in the employment of older persons in modern Russia

Authors

  • Irina L. Sizova Saint Petersburg State University, 7 Universitetskaya Embankment, 9 building, Saint Petersburg 199034, Russia
  • Natalia S. Orlova Saint Petersburg State University, 7 Universitetskaya Embankment, 9 building, Saint Petersburg 199034, Russia https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4018-2940

Keywords:

older workers, labour potential, retirement age, labour market, employment, pension reform, education and qualifications
Supporting Agencies
The report study was funded a collaborative project of Russian Foundation for Basic Research and Belarusian Republican and Foundation for Fundamental Research (No. 20-511-00011).

Abstract

The article identifies the main contradictions and tensions in the work and employment of older people in the modern Russian economy. On the basis of current theoretical concepts and discussions, the definition of older workers is given and the key problems in their employment are identified on the basis of Federal State Statistic Servece and research results. The main contradictions are primarily related to doubts about the possibility of fully using the labour potential of older people in the modern economy and the recognition of the need for this. In addition, Russian society still continues to be dominated by stereotypes regarding older generations of workers and, in particular, the elderly. In the labour market, they are clearly manifested in the difficulties of employment after the age of 45 and in their segregation into the sector of low-paid and unattractive work. As the age increases, the position of a person in the labour market deteriorates, and the retirement age for many people who are still actually healthy and fully able-bodied becomes a marker of liberation from the compulsions and discrimination of the Russian labour and employment system. For the majority of people who retire, the main factor that keeps them at work is only income, which, in combination with a pension, allows them to lead a normal lifestyle. In this context, education focused on the needs of age-related workers is of particular importance. The situation is such that, on the one hand, it is necessary to implement programs of retraining and systematic professional development of employees at older ages, and, on the other hand, this goal is useless due to the lack of motivation on the part of the employees themselves.

Author Biographies

  • Irina L. Sizova, Saint Petersburg State University, 7 Universitetskaya Embankment, 9 building, Saint Petersburg 199034, Russia

    doctor of science (sociology); professor at the department of applied and branch sociology, faculty of sociology

  • Natalia S. Orlova, Saint Petersburg State University, 7 Universitetskaya Embankment, 9 building, Saint Petersburg 199034, Russia

    postgraduate student at the department of applied and branch sociology, faculty of sociology

References

  1. Kozina IM, Zangieva IK. State and market regulation of labour activity of old-age pensioners. The Journal of Social Policy Studies. 2018;16(1):7–22. Russian. DOI: 10.17323/727-0634-2018-16-1-7-22.
  2. Levinson AG. Institutional framework of old age: old age as gender. Vestnik obshchestvennogo mneniya. Dannye. Analiz. Diskussii. 2011;3:52–81. Russian.
  3. Mazin AL. Competitiveness of participants in labor relations. Journal of Modern Competition. 2013;5:117–128. Russian.
  4. Shestakova NN, Vasiliev IG, Chistyakova NE. The study of the older adults’ human capital: setting the problem. Vestnik Permskogo universiteta. Seriya: Ekonomika. 2016;4(31):31–48. Russian. DOI: 10.17072/1994-9960-2016-4-31-48.
  5. Sizova IL, Khusyainov TM. Labor and employment in the digital economy: the problems of the Russian labor market. Vestnik of Saint Petersburg University. Sociology. 2017;10(4):376–396. Russian. DOI: 10.21638/11701/spbu12.2017.401.
  6. Weber E. Industrie 4.0: Wirkungen auf den arbeitsmarkt und politische herausforderungen. Zeitschrift für Wirtschaftspolitik. 2016;65(1):66–74. DOI: 10.1515/zfwp-2016-0002.
  7. Usmanova SV. Ponyatie o gerontologii. Klassifikatsiya vozrastnykh grupp [The concept of gerontology. Classification of age groups]. Irkutsk: Irkutsk State Transport University; 2017. 30 p. Russian.
  8. Riley MW, Johson М, Foner A. Aging and Society. Volume 3. A Sociology of Age Stratification. New York: Russell Sage Foundation; 1972. 668 р.
  9. Kul’kova IA, Silaenkova VV. Features of employment of persons in the age segment after 40 years on the Russian labor market. Internet-zhurnal «Naukovedenie» [Internet]. 2013 [cited 2019 November 15];4. Available from: https://naukovedenie.ru/PDF/82evn413.pdf. Russian.
  10. Blekharskaya EV. Elderly age as a transitional stage of a person’s life path. Pedagogicheskoe obrazovanie v Rossii. 2017;12:36–43. Russian.
  11. Nagornova AYu, Semikov AN, Sapozhnikova TI, Shchanina EV, Arkhipov IV, Piskareva TK. Pozhilye lyudi: strategii sotsial’noi pomoshchi [Older people: strategies for social assistance]. Ul’yanovsk: Zebra; 2016. 131 p. Russian.
  12. Bel’tsova IA. The concept of «prosperous ageing» as a normative construct in forming of positive image of ageing in democratic countries. Vestnik ekonomiki, prava i sotsiologii. 2012;1:283–288. Russian.
  13. Gorbunova ON. Genesis of category «manpower resources». Sotsial’no-ekonomicheskie yavleniya i protsessy. 2011;3–4:62–69.
  14. Hendarman AF, Tjakraatmadja JH. Relationship among soft skills, hard skills, and innovativeness of knowledge workers in the knowledge economy era. Procedia – Social and Behavioral Sciences. 2012;52:35–44. DOI: 10.1016/j.sbspro.2012.09.439.
  15. Kudryavtseva OV. Theoretical approaches to the definitions of «human labor potential», «labor resources», «labor force». Russian Journal of Agricultural and Socio-Economic Sciences. 2012;1:31–38. Russian.
  16. Gorbunova ON, Kondrashova IS. Features of formation of labor and intellectual potential of the person. Sotsial’no-ekonomicheskie yavleniya i protsessy. 2012;10:59–63. Russian.
  17. Roshchina YaM. Psikhologicheskie sostavlyayushchie chelovecheskogo kapitala kak faktor ekonomicheskogo povedeniya [Psychological components of human capital as a factor of economic behavior]. Preprint WP15/2008/03. Moscow: HSE University; 2008. 56 p. Russian.
  18. Smol’kin AA. [Labor potential of elderly people]. Sotsiologicheskie issledovaniya. 2014;5:97–103. Russian.
  19. Gimpelson VE. Transformations of Russia’s human capital. Thirty-second gubernatorial readings. Tyumen, 2018 April 25. Politiya. Analiz. Khronika. Prognoz. 2018;2:170–198. Russian. DOI: 10.30570/2078-5089-2018-89-2-170-198.
  20. Boehm SA, Kunze F. Age diversity and age climate in the workplace. In: Bal PM, Kooij Dorien TAM, Rousseau DM, editors. Age Diversity and Age Climate in the Workplace. Cham: Springer; 2015. p. 33–55. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-08007-9_3.
  21. Ries BC, Diestel S, Shemla M, Liebermann SC, Jungmann F, Wegge J. Age diversity and team effectiveness. In: Schlick CM, Frieling E, Wegge J. Age-differentiated work systems. Berlin: Springer; 2013. p. 89–118. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-642-35057-3_5.
  22. Drentea P. Families and aging. Lanham: MD Rowman & Littlefield; 2018. 208 р.
  23. Barsukov VN. Labor activity of the population of retirement age as a factor of socio-economic development of the territory. Economic and Social Changes: Facts, Trends, Forecast. 2016;1(43):195–213. Russian. DOI: 10.15838/esc/2016.1.43.13.
  24. Dobrokhleb VG. Resource potential of the elderly population of Russia. Sotsiologicheskie issledovaniya. 2008;8:55–61. Russian.
  25. Sizova IL, Grigor’eva IA. [Labor market, employment and aging]. In: Grigor’eva IA, Sizova IL, Vidyasova LA, Dmitrieva AV, Parfenova OA, Petukhova IS. Stareniya bol’she ne budet [Aging will no longer be]. Saint Petersburg: Asterion; 2018. 7–58 p. Russian.
  26. Grigoryeva IA, Sizova IL. Aging trajectories of women in modern Russia. Universe of Russia. Sociology. Ethnology. 2018;27(2):109–135. Russian. DOI: 10.17323/1811-038X-2018-27-2-109-135.
  27. Klepikova EA, Kolosnitsyna MG. Ageism at the Russian labour market: wage discrimination. Russian Management Journal. 2017;15(1):69–88. Russian. DOI: 10.21638/11701/spbu18.2017.104.
  28. Gimpelson VE. Age and wage: stylized facts and Russian evidence. Higher School of Economics Economic Journal. 2019;23(2):185–237. Russian. DOI: 10.17323/1813-8691-2019-23-2-185-237.
  29. Sukneva SA, Elshina IA. The labor activity of the third age population in the Northern region. Economic analysis: theory and practice. 2015;34:12–23. Russian.
  30. Sizova IL. Contemporary policy and practice of supporting the employment of the elderly people (the German experience and its possible applications in Russia). Vlast’. 2015;9:162–166. Russian.
  31. Shchanina EV. Basic factors of labour activity of elderly people. Izvestiya vysshikh uchebnykh zavedenii. Povolzhskii region. Obshchestvennye nauki. 2013;1:88–96. Russian.
  32. Barashkova AS. Motivating the labor behavior of the older generation of the Northern region. Economic analysis: theory and practice. 2015;34:24–34. Russian.

Downloads

Published

2021-04-13

Issue

No. 1 (2021): Journal of the Belarusian State University. Sociology

Section

From the Working Table of a Sociologist

License

The authors who are published in this journal agree to the following:

  1. The authors retain copyright on the work and provide the journal with the right of first publication of the work on condition of license Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial. 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0).
  2. The authors retain the right to enter into certain contractual agreements relating to the non-exclusive distribution of the published version of the work (e.g. post it on the institutional repository, publication in the book), with the reference to its original publication in this journal.
  3. The authors have the right to post their work on the Internet (e.g. on the institutional store or personal website) prior to and during the review process, conducted by the journal, as this may lead to a productive discussion and a large number of references to this work. (See The Effect of Open Access.)

How to Cite

[1]
Sizova, I.L. and Orlova, N.S. 2021. Contradictions and tensions in the employment of older persons in modern Russia. Journal of the Belarusian State University. Sociology. 1 (Apr. 2021), 107–119. DOI:https://doi.org/10.33581/2521-6821-2021-1-107-119.