Youth employment in the economy of the Voronezh region: actual problems and promising directions of their solution

The article is devoted to the study of current problems of youth employment in one of the regions of the Russian Federation - the Voronezh region. As a result of a retrospective analysis, the stages and features of the development of youth employment in the post-Soviet period were identified. Based on the analysis of statistical data, it was found that a tense situation has developed in the region due to a significant reduction in the number of young people, as well as their share in the total number of employed and unemployed. According to the results of a sociological survey, the features and problems of youth employment and employment in the Voronezh region have been identified. The positive aspects of the studied issues are: a high level of satisfaction with the quality of education received, preference for standard employment by young workers, the effectiveness of the mentoring institute, active and effective activity of trade union organizations of the Voronezh region in organizing work with young people. Among the problems highlighted are: insufficient scale of career guidance activities, "discrimination" based on work experience in employment, low wages. As promising areas of leveling the problems identified by the results of the study, the following are justified: improving and increasing the effectiveness of career guidance based on the development and implementation of innovative methods, characterized by the extensive use of modern information and communication technologies and taking into account the specifics of the value orientations of "generation Z" and "generation Alpha"; increasing the investment attractiveness of the regional economy and creating new high-tech jobs in order to "retain" young people in the region, as well as attracting talented youth from other regions and countries; developing and implementing tools for financial and non-financial incentives for employers to increase the wages of young workers; spreading the practice of subsidizing youth employment, including non-profit organizations, and individual entrepreneurs.