Employment Strategies for Residents of Small Towns and Rural Areas: The Case of Penzen Region

The article analyzes the employment issues of the population in small towns and rural areas, with a special focus on the role of digitalization and remote employment as tools for reducing spatial inequality and creating new opportunities for residents of the periphery. An analysis of scientific publications and the results of dissertation research conducted between 2015 and the present, as well as official statistics, provided an opportunity for a deeper understanding of the socio-structural changes occurring in peripheral communities under the influence of economic, digital, and demographic transformations. This analysis revealed that the key trend in the transformation of employment is the shift from predominantly agricultural and low-profit labor to more flexible, mobile, and individualized forms of economic activity. The results of the analysis served as the basis for highlighting the most common employment strategies of residents of small towns and rural areas on the example of Penza Region (self-employment and local entrepreneurship, non-standard and remote employment, pendulum labor migration, combined (hybrid) strategies). The proposed typology reflects real practices and highlights new combinations of traditional and innovative methods of labor employment of the population of small towns and rural areas in the context of digital opportunities and demographic challenges, which makes it possible to gain a deeper understanding of the mechanisms of social adaptation and identify effective social policy measures.