Digital Forms of Employment in the Russian Labor Market. Part I. Distant Employment

Abstract

The paper analyzes digital forms of employment in the Russian labor market. The first part examines distant employment which gained widespread adoption in the 2020s in the labor markets of most countries. The authors examine the definitions of distant employment developed by international statistical organizations, the methodology for measuring it, and its prevalence in different countries. The coronavirus pandemic and the lockdowns introduced to combat it provided a strong impetus for this form of employment. The Russian labor market also experienced a sharp surge in distant employment during the coronavirus crisis.

A special section of the paper is devoted to the empirical analysis of the scale, dynamics, and socio-demographic profile of distant employment based on the microdata from the Rosstat Labor Force Survey for 2020—2023. A comparison of Russian experience with international one shows that the prevalence of distant employment in Russia is lower than in most developed countries. Over the period under consideration, it demonstrated a strong downward trend and currently accounts for just over 1%. Largely it remains a privilege of the most skilled part of the workforce (primarily those with higher education). The analysis shows that in Russian conditions, so-called standard employment is likely to remain the leading form of labor relations in the foreseeable future and that forecasts of its displacement by digital forms of employment are premature.