Postgraduation strategies for youth of the digital generation: employment and migration

Abstract

The relevance of the study of postgraduation strategies for university students in Russia is determined by the shortage of qualified personnel in regional labor markets, which is formed, among other things, under the influence of young people’s territorial movement. The purpose of the study is to establish the nature of the relationship among postgraduate strategies in terms of employment of young people of the digital generation and their migration attitudes. The formulated hypotheses have been tested by analyzing a quantitative survey data (semi-structured questionnaire 2023) of student youth in Omsk within the framework of the federal project “Runway for Young Professionals. New Regions”. The migration neoclassical theory and the push-pull theory formed the methodological basis of the work. To interpret the data obtained, young people were grouped into two groups: informed and uninformed about the places of employment in the region. The study results show a difference in the postgraduation strategies for the two groups of youth. Informed students of the digital generation demonstrate a more optimistic scenario regarding the entry point in the regional labor market: higher than in the second group, among them confidence in finding a job in their specialty in the region is higher; they are less oriented towards labor migration; they are also less likely to consider employment options outside the specialty obtained at the university. At the same time, there is no strong difference between the groups when indicating the reasons in employment issues that stimulate migration. The main factors that push young people out of the region have been identified: low wages, lack of career prospects and jobs.