Regional asymmetry of labor markets and the challenges to the labor policy

The modern Russian labor market space is characterized by heterogeneity, different speed of progress towards new “digital” employment profiles and different efficiency of employment policy measures. Uneven development of regional labor markets determines the opportunities and limitations of the labor policy. The purpose of the article is to analyze the asymmetry of regional labor markets in Russia, identify the associated limitations and challenges considering which can contribute to the efficiency of the labor policy measures in the new socio-economic conditions of regional development. General scientific and statistical methods are used as a methodological base of the research. For the purpose of clustering regional labor markets in Russia Kohonen self-organizing map for Deductor analytical platform are used. The state of regional labor markets is evaluated based on data from the Federal State Statistics Service for 2010-20163. The parameters determining the regional asymmetry of labor market development are the following: employment rate, general unemployment rate (according to ILO methodology), average period of job search, share of the unemployed looking for job for 12 months, average monthly nominal wage, tension rate in the labor market, and socio-economic development rate in the region4. According to them, we identify clusters of regional labor markets whose composition is relatively stable, which helps state a different degree of efficiency of the labor policy measures and the rate and success of regional economic reforms. We analyze the performance of average values of selected indicators within the clusters. The research novelty lies in the author's approach to the definition and measurement of regional asymmetry of regional labor markets in Russia and identification of new challenges for the labor policy. Conclusions and recommendations based on the research results can be applied in activities of regional and federal authorities in developing scenario forecasts of labor markets, employment policy, they will help improve the efficiency of government programs aimed to develop the “problem” regional labor markets.