Restoring Employment and Incomes of the Population to the Pre-Pandemic Level: Content Analysis of Regional Programs (Packages of Measures)

Abstract

At the stage of restoration of employment and incomes of the population to the pre-pandemic level, the importance of measures is focused not only on the current situation but also on long-term changes in the social and labor sphere with an emphasis on developing the infrastructure of the labor market, expanding employment opportunities for citizens based on the acquisition of demanded skills and professions, creating new jobs with decent wages and working conditions. The federal-regional approach being implemented in Russia to the development and implementation of measures to support employment and incomes of the population in the context of the “COVID-19 crisis” integrated the answer to both national problems and the problems of specific regions. The object of research is the regional policy to support the employment and incomes of the population in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. The study aims to perform a content analysis of activities within the framework of a package of measures for 85 Russian regions in order to identify sore points of the labor market both in certain regions and on a national scale. The research methodology is based on a qualitative analysis of the activities of regional packages of measures to restore employment to the level of 2019, implemented in the MAXQDA Standard 2020 program. Based on a quantitative content analysis of documents, the authors developed a classifier of measures to support the population and business, with the help of which the main objects and directions of the support provided, the policy instruments used were identified. According to the results of the paper, the most promising areas of employment support in terms of the expected economic effect are the implementation of investment projects with the participation of the state as a way to support business, the implementation of educational programs, and training in the context of promoting employment. Among the measures to support the incomes of the population, financial support for young specialists and university graduates stands out, implemented mainly in the form of grants. Among the measures of financial support for employers, priority is given to agricultural producers. The practical implementation of the research results and related recommendations will allow, according to the authors, to use them in the future to assess the effectiveness and/or efficiency of the government policy measures to address the consequences of the “COVID-19 crisis”.