Working life of Russian men during the years of instability (on the materials of large cities and districts of the Vologda oblast)

The instability caused by the consequences of COVID-19 and the escalation of geopolitical tensions leads to serious changes in various areas of life. In terms of the functioning of society, the focus is on employment, which reflects the ability to provide a habitual level of well-being. In this case, the situation of men, who are more affected by the interaction with the turbulent external environment, is of interest. Taking into account the importance of the territorial factor, the purpose of the study was to analyze the dynamics of working life indicators of Russian men in large cities and beyond during the period of socio-economic instability. The peculiarity of the work lies not only in shifting the focus to men, which is very rare in the domestic literature, but also in the disclosure of problems from the position of a continuous process of harmonization of personal interests of individuals with the objective conditions of the external environment (as a rule, the working life is considered in the context of purely qualitative characteristics). The information base is represented by official statistics and monitoring data on the quality of labor potential of the Vologda Oblast population for 2018-2022. The results of the analysis show that despite the pressure of macroeconomic factors, the overall situation in the regional labor market remains very stable, which besides low unemployment is reflected in the spread of primary employment and open-ended employment contracts, the wage increase, etc. The concern is caused by the specifics of the working life of men (mostly older men) living on the periphery, where there is limited growth of the income base with a noticeable increase in the tension of the labor process, the development of secondary and informal employment, and employment is more often divorced from personal interests. All this leads to an increase in migration attitudes, especially among young men. The prospects for future work are related to deepening the results obtained through a series of qualitative studies.