ECONOMIC CONDITIONS AND SUBJECTIVE EMPLOYMENT QUALITY ASSESSMENTS

The article examines the problem of assessing employment quality of working population from the angle of interdependence of objective job characteristics, subjective assessments of the employed of their situation in the world of work and external factors associated with changes in economic conditions, which determine alternative employment opportunities open to workers. An integral category that characterizes the subjective assessment of employment quality is job satisfaction. Based upon three rounds of a labor relations survey conducted at enterprises of a large corporation, it was shown that several types of factors affect the level of employee satisfaction with various aspects of their jobs and of overall job satisfaction: individual characteristics of workers and objective parameters of their jobs, chances to become unemployed and the level of wages in similar jobs at other employers. Particular attention is paid to the impact of the economic crisis on various aspects of job satisfaction. It has been established that the state of the external labor market plays an important role in the formation of workers’ demands on employer as regards wages and working conditions, their perception of fairness in the workplace and, therefore, significantly modifies subjective assessments of the quality of employment. The impact of external factors leads to a large extent determines aspirations and demands of workers, regardless of the objective parameters of their work situation. In the time of crisis when economic conditions worsen and labor market becomes slack, subjective assessments of employment quality may improve, while objective quality of jobs deteriorates.

employment quality, economic conditions, labor market, job satisfaction, wages, working conditions, unemployment, employee competitiveness, crisis.

Soboleva I. V. Economic conditions and subjective employment quality assessments. Business. Education. Law, 2020, no. 4, pp. 28–32. DOI: 10.25683/VOLBI.2020.53.439.