Work- this is the most important quality characteristic of any production process. The quality of the products produced and the demand for them depend on the quality of labor. This is especially important when the firm is engaged in non-price competition.

Work force is defined as a specific product that directly serves as the primary source of production of goods and services, since it contributes to the best organization of business economic activity. Quantity work force define such concepts as employment and unemployment, and they characterize the economic situation in the country.

Work force- these are people involved in production, on the one hand, and the totality of human abilities, on the other. The quality of the product “labor” shows the degree of efficiency of a market economy, how competitive it is in this regard. On the one hand, labor force is a quantitative characteristic of the labor potential of a company or enterprise, i.e. the number of people of a certain age and level of education and qualifications. On the other hand, the labor force is represented by the complex of all the abilities and skills of the worker that he uses to carry out his activities. It turns out that to belong to certain area or type of activity, a person must at least have experience, professionalism and certain theoretical knowledge.

Labor is an element of the labor market, where it becomes the object of demand from entrepreneurs, firms, the state wishing to hire additional workers, and supply that comes from households, individuals, intermediary firms and other economic entities. Labor exchange, problem solver employment and employment is one of the types of labor market. It promotes a more rational and efficient distribution of labor across economic sectors, since it does so solely on the basis labor characteristics the workers themselves.

The following conditions for the emergence of the product “labor power” can be distinguished:

1) an employee or any economically active entity must have legal freedom, the right to dispose of their knowledge, skills and abilities, as well as to use available opportunities;

2) the subject of labor must himself be deprived of those products, means of labor or factors that can be obtained by him as a result of the sale of his own labor.

The workforce has the following qualities:

1. An employee performing labor efforts + knowledge, experience, qualifications, education = income. In other words, labor power, together with the owner of labor, is an indivisible whole and, as a result, brings him factor income in the form wages.

2. If the employee’s labor for a long time is not implemented, its effectiveness decreases over time. Labor ability is the skill of conducting any activity. Over time, theoretical principles can be forgotten, education also loses its power, and experience disappears. In order for these characteristics not to be lost, but to be multiplied, the employee must regularly use them, including replenishing knowledge through practical achievements.

Thus, in any country an important problem is increasing employment labor resources. To achieve this, the state, as the highest authority, invests, subsidizes and encourages labor activity.

Labor market: its features and main types

Labor market is a system of economic relations that arises on a contractual basis between an entrepreneur who wants to increase the number of employees and an employee who is looking for work and is ready to start it. The main elements of the labor market are the eternal economic categories supply and demand for a commodity called labor. In addition, this includes the type of competition itself and the cost of payment per unit of labor (salary + bonuses and allowances), which are formed on the basis of the employee’s qualification category. When a person is looking for a job, he turns to the labor market for information. Through this, he finds out which vacancies and specialties need replenishment, what the salary is for performing a certain job, correlates the data received with his own capabilities and desires, and makes his choice.

Accordingly, the labor force is an object of the labor market, which can be characterized as follows:

1) the person himself is not an object of purchase and sale, as was the case during the era of slavery. The individual and his freedom are legally protected, so only what a person can offer the employer is subject to sale, namely: diligence, efficiency, experience, qualifications, creative potential etc. In addition, the employment transaction is carried out exclusively on a voluntary contractual basis so that both parties are satisfied;

2) a person’s working abilities cannot be separated from him, therefore they are the main source of income or wages. For a certain amount of work performed in accordance with the terms of the contract, the employee receives wages and salary. If the work activity had high quality characteristics or results, there is a bonus system in the form of additional earnings and remuneration, which further stimulates the individual to achieve the goal;

3) idle labor or its non-use for any period of time inevitably leads to the loss of useful characteristics. For example, an employee who has higher education, who has sufficiently high qualifications and work experience, but who has not worked in his specialty for a long time, loses his professional skills and his quality characteristics. Therefore, when he returns to his previous work, he begins to adapt to its conditions and requirements in a new way.

Demand on the labor market comes from those organizations, firms, the state, and sometimes the “foreign” sector that need to replenish their staff and are ready to hire for a certain fee certain number workers. Supply is ensured by the fact that individuals, intermediary firms, and households want to sell their labor skills and receive, in their opinion, a fair amount of money for it. It is not necessary that demand always coincides with supply, but if such a situation arises, equilibrium occurs, that is, a situation when the desire of employers to attract new employees to their activities is fully compensated by the need of people to find a place to work. As a result, an equilibrium nominal wage is formed. However, for the workers themselves, it is its real value that is most important, since prices are extremely dynamic and the cost of the consumer basket changes regularly.

The dependence of labor demand on the minimum wage can be expressed feedback, that is, the more nominal wages grow, the fewer workers the entrepreneur decides to provide workplace. The law of diminishing marginal productivity is at work. In other words, the greater the amount of labor involved in production or another type of activity, the less becomes the utility or productivity of each additional unit of labor involved. For an organization, the most rational solution is to resolve the issue of the number and structure of employees, according to which its expansion will be carried out until the result of the activity of an individual employee fully satisfies the needs of the company.

The supply curve on the market is presented differently, here we observe inverse relationship between the quantity of labor and its payment. Initially, a substitution effect occurs, i.e., as the wage rate increases, the number of people wishing to find a job and use their labor abilities increases, since the majority of workers are still motivated by high earnings. However, once a certain level of income is reached, the demand for labor begins to decline because firms cannot afford to increase fixed costs. Labor ceases to be a priority and is replaced by leisure, hence the income effect.

Thus, we can identify the following factors that qualitatively influence the size and structure of the supply.

1. Total population of a given territorial unit to some extent reflects the structure of the economically active labor force, namely: employment and unemployment. The larger this indicator, the higher the likelihood that the supply will be larger and differentiated by direction and type of activity.

2. Proportion of working-age population is directly the determining indicator in calculating the total volume of labor resources that can fully or maximally satisfy the needs of employers.

3. Working hours and working conditions influence the employee's choice. He automatically tries to find a place where all the necessary conditions would be created for him.

4. Labor mobility determined by the fact that labor can move freely within the labor market. Mobility also implies luring personnel from one organization to another with the provision of working conditions and payment, which is determined general concept"personnel leakage"

The labor market is a necessary part of a market economy and, in the broad sense of the word, an aggregate market that describes the magnitude of aggregate demand (organizations or the state making decisions about additional hiring of employees) and aggregate supply (those who want to find a job and immediately start working on it).

If we consider the market in a narrower concept in a static state, then it represents a place for current transactions between employers and, in accordance with the number of available this moment vacancies. The current labor market can be divided into two parts, or two types.

Open market characterized by the fact that the supply covers those economic entities who themselves or through intermediaries are looking for work, that is, in need of retraining or reorientation. Demand in this case is represented by all vacancies and available jobs.

Hidden labor market in addition to open economic entities, it also includes those workers who are currently engaged in production, economic or other activities, but at any time can be relieved of their duties without damage to the organization. In other words, in the future these are potential unemployed people who will subsequently be included in the open market lists.

It is important to note that each individual country, in accordance with its national, economic and technological characteristics, forms its own labor market.

There are countries that are focused on both the internal and external labor markets, i.e. they practice attracting foreigners who have a sphere of economic interests in the country. At the same time, today it is typical for Russia that highly qualified specialists prefer to move to a country with a more developed market economy to participate in the production of its GDP(gross domestic product) with more favorable working conditions and wages. Therefore, an important task of the labor market at any level (international, federal, regional or local) is to create attractive jobs so that there is not just a demand for labor, but that it is satisfied by the desire of economic entities to carry out one or another type of work. labor activity.

One of the most important components of the economic system of any state is labor market. The production of goods is simply impossible without labor, just as the lives of most people depend on such a source of income as wages. Employment level, unemployment rate, personnel structure are the most important economic indicators. In the West, issues related to the labor market have been seriously studied for a long time due to their great importance. In our country, due to historical reasons, they began to pay attention not so long ago (since the 1990s), but today labor economics is an actively developing discipline.

Labor market and wages

Today there are many approaches to the concept of the labor market. Accordingly, there are many definitions of this concept. Some of them are given below.

– a mechanism for self-regulation of demand for labor and its supply, through the free movement of wages and income.

– the sphere of formation of demand and supply of labor.

– socio-economic relations in the field of labor movement.

It should be noted that there is an opinion according to which the labor market does not regulate at all (at least directly) the purchase and sale of labor, but only creates the conditions for satisfying the demand for labor and the supply of labor.

For a labor market to appear, a number of factors must be present and certain conditions must be met. Conditions for the formation of the labor market:

• freedom of the producer and the right of the employee to dispose of his ability to work;
• freedom and voluntariness of entrepreneurship (that is, the ability to freely hire and fire workers, naturally within the framework of labor legislation);
• separation of the worker from the means of production.

Main components of the labor market:

• demand for labor– the need of the enterprise (region, industry) for labor;
• labor supply– number and composition of available labor resources;
• labor price (labor price)– the total amount of wages, costs for professional education, social benefits, etc.

The main component of the price of labor is wages. You can say that she wage– the price of using the labor of an employee.

Types of wages:

• nominal salary– the amount of money received by the employee;
• real wages- a set of goods that can be purchased with this money.

It may be that nominal wages are rising, but due to inflation, real wages (that is, the number of goods that a nominal wage can buy) are falling.

Labor market participants:

• subjects of demand– enterprises (firms), government agencies;
• subjects of the sentence– citizens, households;
• state– as a source of labor legislation and regulator labor relations in a number of issues (for example, establishing the minimum wage - minimum wage).

• balancing labor supply and demand;
• coordination of economic interests of participants in labor relations;
• regulation of the optimal labor price;
• labor stimulation;
• ensuring proportional distribution of labor across regions and industries;
• formation of a labor reserve in the sphere of circulation;
• formation of an optimal personnel structure (in terms of professions and qualifications of workers);
• creating conditions for realizing the personal labor potential of employees.

The labor market is a very complex and dynamic system. To understand and study it, scientists have developed and are developing various models of the labor market.

Labor market models:

• competitive labor market;
• monopsony labor market;
• labor market with the participation of trade unions;
• labor market is a bilateral monopoly.

Competitive labor market

The first model we will consider is called a competitive labor market or perfectly competitive labor market. This model is the most idealized. It is distinguished by the presence of a large number of enterprises (employers) and workers. The jobs at the enterprises are essentially the same, and the qualifications of the workers are also approximately the same.

In this situation, neither employers nor employees can control the price of labor - wages. Share separate enterprise it is simply too small for it to affect the market level of wages. Only the number of hired workers depends on it. The company will hire additional staff until the accompanying increase in revenue exceeds the increase in costs (that is, until equality is achieved MRPL = MRCL = w).

Labor market of perfect competition: W - wage rate, W 0 - equilibrium wage rate, L - volume of labor supply, L 0 - equilibrium volume of labor supply, D L - demand for labor, S L - labor supply, MRC L - marginal costs of the firm for labor, MRP L is the marginal product of labor.

• a large number of employers competing to hire workers for the same jobs;
• a large number of workers with the same qualifications;
• The level of wages cannot be controlled by either employers or employees.

The following model is more realistic - monopsony labor market(monopsony). This is already imperfect competition. Its peculiarity is the small number of employers. In some cases, there may be only one employer. If there is only one employer, this is pure monopsony , with a small number of them – oligopsony .

A monopsony labor market can develop in a small settlement, a single-industry town, where there is only one city-forming company - the main employer.

A monopsonist firm can set both the level of wages and the number of employees hired.

Monopsony labor market: W - wage rate, W M - equilibrium rate for the monopsonist firm, W SK - equilibrium rate for perfect competition, L - volume of labor supply, L M - equilibrium volume of labor supply for the monopsonist firm, L SK - the equilibrium volume of labor supply for perfect competition, D L is the demand for labor, S L is the supply of labor, MRC L is the firm’s marginal cost of labor, MRP L is the marginal product of labor.

The labor supply curve (SL) on the graph will rise smoothly, since the monopsonist must pay higher wages to attract more workers. In this case, the company has to pay previously hired workers the difference between their rate and the rate of new employees. Therefore, the marginal cost curve does not coincide with the labor supply curve.

For example, if the first employee was hired with a salary of 20 thousand rubles, and the second was hired with a salary of 25 thousand rubles, then the company will now pay both employees 25 thousand rubles. (total 50 thousand rubles). AND marginal cost for labor will be: MRCL = 50 – 20 = 30 thousand rubles.

In order to maximize its profits, the employer will strive for equilibrium MRCL = MRPL. To do this, he will hire fewer workers and pay them lower wages than in a perfectly competitive market.

• many workers and one (or very few) employer;
• the employer can influence both the number of employees hired and the amount of wages.

Labor market with trade union participation

It can be said that labor market with trade union participation– Monopsony is the opposite. Now the monopolist is not the buyer of labor, but its seller, whose role is played by trade unions.

Trade unions can have quite a strong influence on labor supply: limit it (which will lead to an increase in wages), take part in negotiations with the Government regarding increases minimum size wages (which will cause the entire wage scale to shift upward), stipulate the amount of wages when concluding contracts with the employer, etc.

But the actions of trade unions for workers not always worn positive character . Thus, achieving higher wages and favorable conditions hiring for their members, unions can cause a reduction in employment and an increase in unemployment (wage rates are higher than employers are willing to pay), an increase in the costs of the enterprise and a loss of its competitive position.

• a large number of employers;
• the only (or small number) seller of labor is the trade union;
• the union regulates wages and influences the number of workers hired.

Labor market of a bilateral monopoly

The latest model is called bilateral monopoly market. In this model, a monopsonist employer is opposed to a monopoly trade union. Seller monopoly and buyer monopoly. One buyer of labor and its only seller.

In some ways, this is an exaggerated competitive market.

The salary level is determined balance of forces"employer - trade union". If the company's management is stronger, the wage level will be lower than the equilibrium (competitive) value. If the union is stronger, it is higher.

• one or a small number of employers;
• one or a small number of labor sellers (trade unions);
• The level of wages depends on the balance of forces in the market.

State regulation of the labor market

As already mentioned, the labor market is very a complex system. At the same time, it is of great importance, both economically and socio-politically. Therefore, it is not surprising that the state takes part in regulating the labor market.

Main goals of state regulation of the labor market:

1. Ensuring full employment– that is, the absence of , while maintaining ;

2. Creating a flexible labor market– that is, a labor market that can quickly respond to changes in the economic situation and flexibly adapt to them, while remaining stable and manageable. A flexible labor market is a place where anyone who wants to work can find a job that suits their needs and capabilities.

Basic directions of state regulation of the labor market:

• increased job creation and employment growth in the public sector;
• training and retraining of the workforce;
• facilitating labor recruitment (for example, labor exchanges);
• social unemployment insurance (funds are allocated from the state budget for unemployment benefits).

The state can influence the labor market in two forms;

• active state policy on the labor market (creation of new jobs, retraining programs for workers);
• passive state policy on the labor market (support for the unemployed - payment of unemployment benefits).

Of course, passive support for the unemployed is important, but it does not motivate the employee to look for work. Therefore, in the future, an active policy is preferable.

Galyautdinov R.R.

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The classical model accepts the following axioms:

1. Firms are free to hire labor, i.e. can freely hire and fire workers;

2. Other things being equal, the marginal product of labor decreases as the labor force grows;

3. Labor supply increases as real wages rise.

The model can easily be considered using the example of a typical company. Let be its production function and let be the amount of labor resources consumed by the firm, i.e. labor force. The marginal product of labor is

Condition 2 exists general requirement To production functions and is known as law of diminishing returns to labor. In differential form, this condition looks like: .

From general theory The firm knows the equilibrium condition for the firm in terms of labor resources: , where is the price of manufactured products and is the wage rate. Informally, this condition is very clear: if there is inequality for a given value, then it is profitable to hire another worker, since the price of the additional product produced by him is greater than his salary; if the opposite inequality is true, then one worker must be laid off.

Let us recall the conclusion from this condition: the firm’s profit is . To determine the condition for maximizing profit, we find the partial derivative of profit with respect to labor and equate it to zero - we get exactly this condition. And the condition guarantees precisely the maximum profit when the first condition is met.

The value found from the equilibrium condition for the firm in terms of labor resources is the demand for labor on the part of producers. Let's find the derivative with respect to wages, for which we differentiate by equality: .

Since from condition 1, then, i.e. the demand for labor falls as wages rise.

The relationship is called real wages. Its economic meaning is how many units of produced goods a worker can buy with his salary. Having differentiated the equality with respect to , we see that, i.e. demand for labor falls as real wages rise.

Total demand labor and employment are essentially the same thing. Let denotes the total supply of labor. Approximate dependencies And from real wages are shown in the figure. Equilibrium in the labor market is characterized by equality of demand and suggestions . Let it be – respectively, real wages and total demand for labor, i.e. employment at equilibrium.

The classical explanation for the stability of the equilibrium state is as follows. When real wages exceed the equilibrium wage, i.e. when , there is an excess supply of labor, which leads to a decrease in wages by entrepreneurs and thereby in real wages, i.e. a return to equilibrium occurs.

If it turned out, then the supply of labor would decrease. A shortage of labor would force entrepreneurs to increase wages, and thereby real wages, i.e. there would be a return to equilibrium.

The figure shows that there is only one state of equilibrium.

Comment. Axiom 3 of the labor market model requires clarification. Yes, a person wants to receive as much reward as possible for his work. But if he is unemployed and cannot find the job he would like or the salary he would like, then he may well agree to work for a lower salary.

There are several types of unemployment :

Ø Friction – this is when a worker finds himself “between jobs.” Some voluntarily change jobs, others are looking new job due to dismissal, others temporarily lose their seasonal jobs (for example, in construction with the approach of winter), etc.

Ø Structural– Over time, changes occur in the economy and society. Some professions are gradually dying out, and workers in these professions need to change them. The demand for other professions is increasing, and more and more such workers are needed. If unemployment is reduced to the sum of these two types, then we speak of full employment.

In the classical model under consideration, fluctuations in the demand for labor supply disrupt full employment only in the short-term aspect - during the period of transition to a new equilibrium, there is, say, no mass long-term unemployment in this model (see the beginning of the remark). However, this position of the classic spruce was stubbornly contradicted by the fact of repeated periods of long-term unemployment, especially during the “Great Depression” of the 1930s. This obvious discrepancy with the classical model of reality served as one of the origins of Keynesianism.

TOPIC 5.1 LABOR MARKET AND UNEMPLOYMENT

lecture plan

1. The concept of the labor market and labor force

2. Neoclassical concept of employment

3. Keynesian concept of employment

4. Unemployment and its types

5. Consequences of unemployment. Okun's Law

6. State policy to combat unemployment

Concept of labor market and labor force

The labor market is a set of economic relations and methods, mechanisms and institutions aimed at the purchase and sale of labor power. In this market, labor, acting as a commodity, is exchanged for wages. This is where demand, supply and price for labor are formed. Without the labor market, the functioning and development of a market economy is impossible.

The subjects in the labor market are, on the one hand, entrepreneurs and the state, and on the other, workers and trade unions.

The price of labor in the market is called the wage rate, which is the monetary form of the cost of labor power.

Labor functions:

1. Social function is to ensure the level of income and well-being of people, as well as the reproduction of the growing production abilities of workers.

2. The economic function is the distribution and redistribution of labor resources across areas, industries, regions, professions, qualifications according to supply and demand.

Work force - the working population of the country, i.e. all those who, due to age and health, are able to work.

Economically active population, employed or working people and the unemployed. IN Western countries the labor force does not include secondary school and higher education students educational institutions, serving in the army on the basis of compulsory conscription, housewives and those who do not want to work. In Russia, students of higher educational institutions and military personnel are included in the labor force on the basis of compulsory conscription

In the total population, there is a category of the working-age population (adult population), which includes people over 16 years of age. The working-age population is divided into two parts:

I. included in the labor force - people who either have a place of work in social production, or do not have a job, but want to work and are actively looking for work. Therefore, the total workforce is divided into two parts:

1. employed (E) are people who have a job in social production, and it does not matter whether a person is employed full-time or part-time, full-time working week or part-time (in this case, he is considered part-time or part-time). A person is also considered employed if he does not work for the following reasons: he is on vacation, sick, on strike, due to bad weather or natural Disasters. This category, however, does not include people employed in the shadow economy, since they are not officially registered anywhere and are not counted by statistical services;

2. unemployed (unemployed - U) are people of working age who do not have a job, but are actively looking for it, i.e. making special efforts to find a job and ready to start work immediately, or expecting to start working on a certain date. Finding a job is the main criterion that distinguishes the unemployed from people not included in the labor force.

II. not included in the labor force- people who are not engaged in social production and do not seek to get a job. People fall into this category:

1. maintained by state institutions and therefore called the institutional population, which are automatically excluded from the labor force, since they are not considered potential components of the labor force:

· serving sentences in prisons,

· staying in psychiatric hospitals,

· disabled people;

2. who, in principle, could work, but do not do so due to various reasons, i.e. who do not want or cannot work and are not looking for work:

· full-time students(because they must study);

· retired(both due to age and health reasons - since they have either already worked their hours or can no longer work);

· housewives(since although they work full time, they are not in social production and do not receive payment for their work);

· tramps(because they simply don’t want to work);

· people who were looking for work, but despaired of finding it and therefore stopped looking(since those who have despaired of finding work are counted in the number of those not included in the labor force, and not in the number of unemployed, despite the fact that they would like to work, their presence in the economy underestimates the official unemployment rate).

Scheme 1 - Labor market diagram

Thus, The total number of labor force is equal to the total number of employed and unemployed:

where L is the total number of labor force, E is the number of employed, U is the number of unemployed

The demand and supply of labor are influenced by the following factors:

1. to labor demand

- the amount of demand for goods and services in the industry that supplies labor demand; the greater the demand for the goods and services of the industry, the greater the demand for labor;

- the value of the maximum rate of replacement of labor with capital (funds), defined by formula (3.6); the higher this marginal norm, the greater the demand for labor;

- wage rate, with an increase in which the demand for labor decreases;

- business cycle phase; in the phase of economic recovery, the demand for labor increases, and during a crisis it decreases, and there is a reduction in surplus labor;

- monopolization restricts the demand for labor in order to reduce wage rates;

2. on labor supply

- demographic related to fertility and mortality, on which the population depends; population growth

- involving women in the work process increases labor supply;

- increase in retirement age increases labor supply;

- labor immigration from neighboring and remote countries increases labor supply;

- additional sources of income, in addition to wages, reduce labor supply.

Introduction

Currently, a complex process of economic transformation continues in Russia, within the framework of which deep changes are taking place in the employment policy system. The main direction of this process is the formation of the labor market, which in turn affects the entire system of employment relations.

The labor market, like the market for goods, services, housing, securities, finance, etc., is integral part market economy. Moreover, it occupies one of the most important places in the economy, since supply and demand in the labor market determine the flow of labor between areas of employment, as well as the number of employed workers.

Previously, labor management policies were based not on human interests, but on needs determined by the general direction of the economy. It was subordinated to the tasks of overcoming the shortage of personnel and finding additional sources of labor to staff the growing number of jobs. At the same time, there was an increase in managerial and support personnel at enterprises and organizations.

The transition to a market economy led to big changes in the use of labor resources. And the lack of an economically sound employment policy during the transition period, as well as a weak, constantly changing and contradictory legislative and legal framework, was not able to accelerate the formation and development of the labor market in Russia. In these conditions, the study of employment policy, its essence, the place and role of the labor market, the development of constructive proposals for its reform, has acquired comprehensive significance - economic, social and political. And the primary role in the process of developing the labor market to a new level is assigned to the state, since not a single country can do without state intervention in the market mechanisms of distribution and formation of labor resources.

Labor and labor market

Concepts of the labor market and labor force

Labor market- a set of economic relations regarding the purchase and sale of a specific product - labor; the market in which labor is exchanged for wages.

The labor market determines demand, supply and price for labor and, consequently, for labor services. The subjects of economic relations in the labor market are, on the one hand, entrepreneurs - large monopolies, medium and small businessmen, the state, and on the other - individual workers or their associations (trade unions). Prices prevailing in the labor market represent wage rates, which are the monetary form of the cost of labor. The labor market situation is characterized by the relationship between available jobs and unemployed and able-bodied citizens looking for work. Together with other types of market, the labor market forms an economic system of the market mechanism. Moreover, the labor market occupies a central position in the structure of the market economy and acts as a kind of foundation on which the entire market system, since without the labor market the optimal functioning and development of a market economy is practically unthinkable.

In macroeconomics, a distinction is made between national and global labor markets. The first operates in the country's economy as a whole, the second - on a global economic scale and exists in the form of international labor migration.

The labor market, being one of the leading components of the general economic market mechanism, performs the specific function of distributing and redistributing labor resources across areas, industries, regions, professions, specialties, qualifications in accordance with the law of supply and demand. The labor market, according to many principles of its functioning mechanism, is a market of a special kind, which has a number of significant differences from other commodity markets. The regulators of the labor market are not only macro- and microeconomic factors, but also socio-economic and socio-psychological factors, which are not always related to wages. The dynamics of the labor market are characterized by many features, the main of which are:

1. Unlike other factors of production, the labor productivity of hired workers can vary significantly depending on how optimally the labor process is organized, as well as on the level of personal interest of workers in work.

2. Work, as a rule, is carried out by teams of workers who independently determine production standards for them.

3. In the labor market, the owner of the conditions of production (means of production) and the owner of labor power meet, between whom there is a bargain regarding the purchase of not the owner of the labor power himself, but specific type labor (work of a cook, mechanic, engineer, etc.), as well as the conditions and duration of use of the employee.

4. Characteristic feature labor market is a constant excess of labor supply over demand for it.

5. In the labor market, there is competition between workers for available jobs. In this struggle, the winner is the one who can provide the owner of capital with his labor more profit.

The dynamics of the labor market depends on the relationship between its two elements:

market demand for labor;

· market labor supply.

The first element of the labor market is the sum of the volumes of demand for labor resources of the entire country's economy at any price for these resources.

The second element of the labor market is the sum of the volumes of supply of labor resources for the entire number of workers in the country at each possible price for them.

Factors of market demand for labor and, consequently, for labor resources are:

a) the amount of demand for goods and services produced by workers, since the demand for any resource, including labor resources, is generated from the demand for the goods produced by them;

b) the price level for labor resources, i.e. wage level;

c) the degree to which capital is replaced by labor in the production process;

d) phase of the economic cycle: in the boom phase, the demand for labor services grows, in the recession phase it decreases;

e) the current economic situation, which increases or decreases the demand for labor services;

With) scientific and technical progress, which, on the one hand, creates the prerequisites for the release of part of the employee or imposes new demands on them (in terms of their structure and quality), which is accompanied by a reduction in employment, and on the other hand, creates a demand for workers in new professions and specialties;

g) a situation in which employers' associations act as monopsies when purchasing labor services, limiting demand for them to lower wage rates.

Factors influencing the growth of the supply of labor services are:

a) demographic factors (fertility, mortality, natural increase, sex and age structure) that predetermine the population size;

b) the level of economic activity of various demographic and ethnic groups labor resources. The involvement of women in the provision of labor services has significantly increased the supply of labor in the labor market;

c) retirement age: earlier retirement reduces the supply of labor resources, and, conversely, later retirement increases the supply of labor services;

d) immigration of the working population. In the USA in the 80s. XX century Immigration accounted for 39% of the country's population growth; in the first half of the 1990s. these volumes have been preserved. To Russia in 1990-1999. Only 7,517 thousand people entered the former republics of the USSR. In addition to officially registered immigrants, many hundreds of thousands immigrated illegally;

e) mobility in changing occupations, depending both on the level of professional and qualification training of workers and on the possibility of their retraining;

f) the length of the working day, which determines the desire to work overtime;

g) actions of trade unions as monopoly sellers of labor services, aimed at limiting supply in order to increase wage rates;

h) the possibility of other sources of income other than wages, which leads to a reduction in labor supply;

i) acceptability of working conditions when choosing a place of work.

As a result of the interaction between the demand for labor and its supply, wage rates are established. At the macro level, there is always a conflict between labor and capital in the distribution of national income. Consequently, the labor market is imperfect, since, for example, full employment presupposes the presence of so-called “natural unemployment”, which arises as a result of the excess supply of labor over the demand for it.

There are two main functions of the labor market:

a) economic;

b) social.

The essence of the economic function of the labor market is to ensure the optimal process of reproduction of the working population. The social function of the labor market is to ensure high level life and quality of workers and their families.

Work force: a) a person’s ability to work; b) the totality of a person’s physical and mental abilities that are used by him in the process of producing vital goods; c) the total number of workers in the country; d) part of the population, including employed, self-employed and job seekers(unemployed).

In reality, the labor force functions, develops and enriches itself in the process of human labor activity. The socio-economic conditions of the functioning of the labor force are directly dependent on the method of connecting the producer with the conditions of production.

The gender, age and professional qualification structure of the workforce, as well as its size, significantly influence labor potential countries. In those countries where the proportion of workers at a young age is significant, there are ample opportunities for their retraining, which is a major advantage from the point of view of introducing the achievements of scientific and technological progress.

Features of the Russian labor market

Modern Russian market labor is characterized by the following features:

1. Imbalance of the labor market in a territorial context. There are two groups of regions: labor surplus and labor deficit. The first group includes the South of Russia, the North Caucasus, many Largest cities countries. Moreover, both internal and external migration of the population increases labor redundancy in these regions, since there has been a migration increase in labor resources in them. The second group includes Far East, Eastern Siberia, North. Moreover, migration processes aggravate the labor shortage in them, since when exchanging population with other regions of Russia and other countries, they have a migration outflow of residents.

2. Imbalance in the sectoral aspect, which has intensified in last decade as a result of the transformation of the sectoral structure of the economy. The fuel and energy industries began to have more and more priority, while the engineering industries reduced production volumes and, consequently, the number of employees, as a result of which it underwent significant changes sectoral structure employment, distorting the composition of the total workforce.

3. Professional and qualification instability, caused primarily by the privatization of property, which significantly undermined the production activities of many enterprises that either stopped or re-profiled their activities, as a result of which the professional and qualification structure of the workforce was disrupted.

4. B last years production fell sharply, as a result, large contingents of highly qualified specialists and workers were left without work, who were forced to look for work with a lower level of qualifications, and were disqualified and thus deprived of professional and qualification mobility.

5. Throughout the entire period of reform of society and the economy, the need for unskilled or low-skilled labor prevailed, which reduced the territorial and professional mobility of labor resources. Only in Lately The demand for qualified workers began to increase. However, to improve the situation will require large costs and a lot of time.