The place of self-employed people on the Russian labor market

The paper deals with the problem of entrepreneurs and self-employed people on the modern Russian labor market. There has been little discussion about self-employed people although it occupies a prominent place on the Russian employment market. The author defines the term ‘self-employed people’, their place and role in the social and economic structure of society. The unstable market situation in this regard is considered as the main source of economic and social problems of employees involved in the informal sector. The state should recognize their official status to legalize their labor market position and consolidate their social status as well. The inefficient state measures applied is due to a lack of knowledge of this group. Entrepreneurship is defined as an adaptive measure in the uncertain employment situation. The study notes the changing reasons for choosing entrepreneurship because of the changes in the age structure of the group, the engagement of more young people in it. The author concludes that there is a difference in self-identification of two groups under review: social self-identification of entrepreneurs is more reasonable and realistic as it considers a large number of factors (level of education, wealth, prestige, and public usefulness).