Rapid development and implementation of modern information and communication technologies has led to a new phase of economic, scientific and technological progress. However, there is no mechanism to ensure social systems effective management based on the information technologies use due to socio-economic inequality among the population of the Russian Federation, preventing all segments of the population from benefiting scientific and technological progress results, which has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. The aim of the study is to identify the modern information technologies role in improving the living standard and the population life quality, in particular, in overcoming the working population poverty. The article analyses foreign and domestic research on this issue over the past five years. The pandemic impact on social structures, in particular the labour market and employment, has been considered. The growing importance and social networks role in public life and their use serious potential to solve the problems under study have been noted. The authors carried out a sociological survey in the Republic of Bashkortostan, on the basis of which made conclusions: modern society is characterised by the information inequality problem, which is closely linked to the economic inequality problem, which will be exacerbated by the modern information and communication technologies development; the computer illiteracy problem and the close relationship between income level and knowledge, skills in information and communication technologies, English language skills were identified among residents. The research results highlight the need to implement modern information technologies skills into poverty alleviation programmes.

The presented work analyzes the features, problems and factors of labor capital development of the Republic of Bashkortostan based on the data of a sociological study conducted by the Institute for Socio-Economic Research of the Ufa Federal Research Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences in 2021. A number of problems faced by the able-bodied population are considered, including: a relatively low standard of living of the population, which hinders the provision of the quality of life and professional productivity of workers; gender inequality in the distribution of labor incomes of the population; the predominance of negative assessments of the able-bodied population of their physical condition, the quality of their leisure and vacations; discrepancy between the high qualification of employees and the functions performed, which does not allow them to fully realize their labor potential in the workplace. Particular attention is paid to the analysis of values that prevail in the minds of the able-bodied population and determine their labor behavior, and as a result, have a negative impact on the formation of labor capital. Thus, it was revealed that the value orientations of the population of the Republic of Bashkortostan are typical for countries of “catching up” development. In this regard, the authors substantiate the necessity of cultivating the values of rationality of financial thinking, equality, self-expression and autonomy, as well as improving institutions that support these values in society. These values act as factors in the formation of high-quality labor capital in the conditions of modern Russia