Labor force and related concepts

As a result of a long process of development of ideas about a person as a subject economic life a number of concepts arose: "labor force", "human resources", "labor resources", " human factor”, “labor potential”, “human capital”. These concepts, often close in content, carry their own semantic load and reflect the gradual awareness by society of the growing role of man in economic and social life (Fig. 4.1).

Rice. 4.1. The system of concepts characterizing resources for labor

The concept of " work force" in socio-economic literature and in practical life is used in two meanings. Firstly, as a set of physical, spiritual and intellectual abilities of a person, which he can use to produce material and spiritual goods, services, i.e. for the implementation of labor activity. Secondly, as a set of carriers of the ability to work - those people who have the indicated abilities. In other words, the labor force as the ability to work is identified with the bearers of this ability - people.

It should be noted that in its second meaning, the concept of "labor force" is used quite widely and its boundaries are not sufficiently defined. Official statistics call the labor force economically active population , i.e. those people who are already actually working or offering themselves in the labor market as potential workers.

If the production of material goods and services is considered from the standpoint of the resource approach, then the obvious conclusion will be that, along with material, energy, financial resources the most important factor economic development are human resources, i.e. people with their professional knowledge and skills. originality human resources is that it is both the resources of the economy and people - consumers of material goods and services.

As one of the forms of expression of human resources are labor resources , which include the able-bodied population of working age and actually working teenagers and pensioners. The concept of "labor resources" was born and established in the USSR and other countries of the former Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (CMEA), which practiced central planning as the main method of state influence on the economy. Under these conditions, a person acted as a passive object of external control, as a planning and accounting unit of labor resources. At the same time, as practice has shown, the concept of "labor resources" fits well into the system of market categories and, due to its wide information content, can be used as effective tool state regulation labor market.

The concept of "labor resources" gives a quantitative description of that part of the population that has the ability to work. But it does not take into account the differences in labor abilities and capabilities of people. Therefore, since the beginning of the 80s of the last century, the concept of " labor potential ', which in its most general form can be defined as labor resources in qualitative terms, i.e. taking into account gender, age, education, state of health, consciousness and activity, which determine the "return" of labor resources as a resource of the economy. The concept of labor potential is based on the idea of ​​a person not as a passive object of external management, but as a subject with his own capabilities, needs and interests in the world of work.

Since the end of the last century, in the theory and practice of management, view of the person as the main, decisive factor production and social development. The priority was the understanding that, in the end, it is not the technical level of production that determines the economic potential of enterprises, organizations, society as a whole, but human factor , embodying the ability to create, invent, produce new knowledge.

The human factor is considered as a manifestation of the totality of a person's personal qualities that affect his labor activity. The human factor of production is characterized not only by indicators of the number, demographic, sectoral, professional and qualification structures of workers, but also by indicators of attitude to work, initiative, enterprise, interests, needs, values, ways of behaving in various situations.

The human factor is an economic and political term, the subject of interests of modern general theory systems, labor psychology, ergonomics and sociology. Attention to the human factor is directly related to the need for socio-economic development, which cannot be achieved using authoritarian, administrative-bureaucratic management methods. The activation of the human factor is a multifaceted problem, which includes the complex processes of the formation of moral values, the problems of the family, school and home education, the physical health of society, the preservation of cultural traditions, personnel and social policy, education, etc.

Another concept that has become widespread recently is human capital - is based on the idea of ​​a person as an object of effective investments and a subject that transforms these investments into a body of knowledge and skills for the purpose of their subsequent implementation. Human capital is a stock of knowledge, skills and motivations formed as a result of investments, reflecting the totality of physical, intellectual and psychological qualities and abilities of an individual. Acquiring the form of capital in connection with the continuity of the process of its accumulation, it contributes to the growth of labor productivity and affects the growth of incomes of a person and the economy as a whole.

An individual's cost of investing in education and training can include three components:

Direct costs (tuition fees, expenses for the purchase of textbooks, change of residence and travel, etc.);

Lost opportunities (lost earnings) during the study and in connection with the likely change of profession, place of work;

Moral damage caused by nervous tension in connection with education, job search, likely change of environment.

Human capital, labor resources and the economically active population

An important concept closely related to labor resources is considered human capital. AT economic theory it refers to the totality of knowledge and skills of employees. In an extended interpretation, human capital includes the state of health of workers, their personal characteristics, cultural level, the state of labor morality, and the motivation system. To assess human capital, it includes the accumulated value of all expenditures on education, training and retraining of the labor force (spending on health and culture, if we are talking about the broad meaning of human capital).

First time term human capital was proposed by an American economist Jacob Mincer(1922-2006) in 1958 in the article "Investment in human capital and the distribution of personal income". However, the greatest contribution to the development of the theory of human capital was made by American economists - Nobel Prize winners. Theodor Schultz(1902–1998) and Gary Becker(b. 1930). Other well-known economists also contributed - Simon Kuznets, Edward Denison, John Kendrick, Robert Solow, Robert Lucas and others.

In contrast to the previously dominant ideas that the costs of education, training and retraining of the labor force are only costs, in the theory of human capital they are considered as investments in economic growth, i.e. investing in human capital is analogous to investing in fixed assets. According to the adherents of the theory of human capital, it is the growth of human capital that is reflected in the growth of wages.

To labor resources include the population able to work. These are primarily people of working age, as well as working pensioners, teenagers, and immigrants.

However, statistical authorities prefer the term economically active population, which covers the employed and the unemployed (as a synonym is often used the concept work force ). In turn, the employed are divided into full-time and part-time workers. According to international statistics, the first category includes people who have worked 35 hours or more per week, and the second - from 1 to 34 hours a week. Based on this, various indicators of employment are applied: the total number of employees, the number of employees in terms of full-time work.

In the economically active population, salaried and self-employed (self-employed) workers are also distinguished. AT developed countries the first category makes up on average 85-90% of the economically active population, in the less developed it is much less, primarily due to the large number of small farms in the primary sector, working more for themselves than for the market. The self-employed form the backbone of the informal economy.

The Scale and Dynamics of the Labor Force and Employment in Russia

In recent years, the economically active population in Russia has been 75–76 million people, including 70–71 million people employed in the economy.

As in other countries, in Russia the supply of labor is determined primarily by natural population growth and the scale of external migration. In turn, natural increase is determined by the ratio of births and deaths, and although these indicators are improving in modern Russia, the consequences of the demographic catastrophe of the 1990s are still growing. have not been eliminated - natural growth recovered only in 2012. It is offset by a positive balance of external migration: for 1993–2011. More than 7.6 million people entered Russia for permanent residence. (mainly from the former Soviet republics), while 2.9 million left. In addition, temporary labor migration has a significant impact on labor supply: it is estimated that the number of temporary labor immigrants, including unregistered ones, reaches 5-7 million people.

On the demand side, economic dynamics remain the main factor influencing the dynamics of employment in Russia. So, in 2009, i.e. at the height of the last crisis, the economically active population fell by 1.6 million as temporary migrants moved in rather than out.

Employment - it is the degree of participation of citizens of the country capable of creative activity.Unemployment - This is a socio-economic phenomenon in which a part of citizens capable of creative and labor activity is not employed in the process of creating goods and services. Thus, quantitatively, human capital is calculated as the sum of all employees. Unemployed members of society, or the unemployed, belong to the category of human resources. unemployedshould be considered persons who are unemployed, looking for work and, in accordance with the established procedure, received the official status of unemployed in the bodies public service employment. Various forms of unemployment can be grouped into two main types - natural and involuntary unemployment.

natural unemployment - it is unemployment corresponding to the conditions of full employment of human capital. It is adequate to the best reserve of human capital for the economy, which ensures stable and predictable rates of economic development. The real output at the natural rate of unemployment is calledthe natural potential of the economy.

Basic forms natural unemployment are frictional, structural and institutional unemployment.

frictional unemployment - this is a situation in which workers who have left their previous place of work are on the move: they are looking for or waiting for a new job. This unemployment is not long-term, and from its definition it follows that it can be regarded as inevitable and even desirable. The “naturalness” of frictional unemployment is due to the natural dynamics of human capital: the transition of workers and specialists to highly paid jobs, which, in turn, contributes to the optimization of the use of limited production factors.

Structural unemployment - it is unemployment that occurs naturally in the course of the functioning of the market mechanism, which responds to changes in the structure of supply and demand. Such changes lead to the fact that the demand for certain types of human capital decreases or stops altogether, and as a result, unemployment occurs. Often structural unemployment explained by changes not only in demand, but also in production technology. Technological improvements are a natural result of such a dynamic factor of economic development as scientific and technological progress. The development of science and technology, the intellectualization and informatization of society lead to structural changes in the economy and, consequently, to structural unemployment.

institutional unemployment - unemployment generated by the action of formal norms and informal restrictions that determine the structure and dynamics of the human capital market. This form of unemployment arises primarily as a result of the functioning of state institutions, in one way or another affecting the demand and supply of human capital.

Often, institutional unemployment is caused by excessive state payments to certain categories of citizens through the social budget. And the larger the amount of benefits, the longer the search for a new job. Institutional unemployment often arises due to a certain tax policy states. Too high tax rates reduce the amount of income remaining at the disposal of workers. And the smaller the difference between the part of people's income remaining and the amounts of payments under social programs, the stronger are the mechanisms that limit the supply of human capital and lengthen the period of unemployment. Institutional is also the unemployment that occurs due to the imperfection of information about the availability of vacancies.

Thus, natural unemployment is determined by the structure of the human capital market itself, and therefore is regulated by its mechanisms. Natural unemployment is a rare occurrence in an economy; involuntary unemployment is more common.

involuntary unemployment - This is unemployment in a situation of underemployment of human capital, that is, exceeding its natural level. Under involuntary unemployment, the real output is lower than under conditions of natural unemployment. The main forms of involuntary unemployment are cyclical, regional and hidden unemployment.

Cyclical unemployment - it is unemployment caused by a decline in production, i.e., that phase of the economic cycle in which the volume of general spending or demand is insufficient. In the event that the demand for goods and services falls, then employment decreases and unemployment rises. In the recent past, this unemployment could be attributed to natural unemployment, since the cyclical nature of economic dynamics is inherent in the economy itself. However, the strengthening of the role of the state in modern market economy makes more and more natural not the cyclical, but the progressive nature of economic development. Therefore, the decline in production as a phase of the business cycle becomes more and more “unnatural”.

Regional unemployment - unemployment arising in a particular region of the country as a result of a number of geographical, demographic, socio-psychological and other factors. Therefore, the problem should be solved not only with the help of economic measures. It is required to develop and adopt long-term targeted programs for the regulation of employment from the point of view of the peculiarities of the functioning of national and regional human capital markets.

Hidden unemployment - one of the forms of involuntary unemployment that occurs in the conditions of deformation of the market mechanism, as well as the loss of human incentives for creative activity. In this case, we are talking about people who have to work part-time or work week. Citizens who have despaired of finding work, have lost the right to receive benefits and have refused to register on the human capital exchange are also in the regime of hidden unemployment. The scale of hidden unemployment is especially great under the conditions of the administrative system of managing the economy, that is, with deformations of the market mechanism.

Issues related to unemployment are the subject of close attention of the state, which influences the level and duration of unemployment and determines measures for the social protection of the unemployed. The level and duration of unemployment are its most important indicators.

Unemployment rate - is the share of officially registered unemployed in the working-age population.Duration of unemployment - the amount of time people are unemployed. It should be noted that both indicators complement each other and give a fairly complete picture of employment.

If the state strives to ensure 100% employment, then the economy will no longer respond flexibly to external dynamic factors of economic development due to a shortage of human capital. This will inevitably lead to inflation, slowdown in economic development, budget deficit etc. The human capital market itself always tends to establish a natural rate of unemployment. And if employment exceeds this norm, then the state should weaken the impact on the human capital market so that it itself comes to a natural equilibrium state.

The impact of the state on the human capital market is necessary in conditions of involuntary unemployment. Here the state uses all its regulatory potential, seeking to increase employment up to the natural level. But the state can use far from all regulatory methods of influence, but only those that least of all contain the threat of destabilizing the economy.

In the arsenal of the state there are many methods of regulating the human capital market. These include improving the system of information on the availability of jobs, which helps the unemployed to reduce the time it takes to find a job. The state creates a network of retraining and retraining of citizens who are temporarily unemployed, takes part in organizing the work of human capital exchanges. Among the progressive methods of regulating employment is the activity of the state to stimulate the development of new technologies, create favorable conditions for the development of small businesses that provide employment to a large group of owners of human capital.

As for the activities of the state for the social protection of those affected by unemployment, it should first of all take care of those who have become involuntarily unemployed. It is clear that a person who voluntarily became unemployed cannot claim the same participation of the state in his destiny as, for example, a person left without a job as a result of cyclical unemployment. In addition, the desire of the state to socially protect its citizens must certainly be commensurate with the real possibilities of the country's economy. Otherwise, such “assistance” may result in an increase in institutional unemployment, and the stimulating role of wages may be significantly undermined, which should not be allowed under any circumstances.

graduate work

1.1 The concept of "labor resources" and its relationship with the concepts of "labor potential" and "human capital"

In foreign and domestic literature, many terms are used that reflect the qualitative characteristics of the labor force and the role of a person in labor process: labor resources, labor force, labor potential, human potential, human capital, etc.

In our country, for many decades, the concept of "labor force" has been used, defined as the totality of a person's ability to work. In the 1980s, discussing the reasons that led Soviet society to the deepest crisis, social and scientific thought came to the conclusion that it is the person who is the decisive factor in production, and if he does not have incentives for efficient and conscientious work, then there will be no progress. society is out of the question. Thus the term "human factor" was born. Subsequently, he gave way to others: labor potential, human resources.

The latter term was used by domestic economists in the 1990s, although they defined it differently.

So, according to B. Genkin, human capital is "a set of qualities that determine productivity and can become a source of income for a person, family, enterprise and society."

V. Shchetinin defines it as "the stock of knowledge, abilities and motivations available to everyone" .

M. Kolosnitsyna - "as the ability to generate income embodied in a person." The last definition, despite its brevity, seems to be very successful.

B. Genkin believes that labor potential is a concept that is more capacious than human capital, but, in turn, is part of an even more general concept - the potential of a person as a person. He considers the following components of labor potential: health, morality and the ability to work in a team; creativity, activity; organization; education; professionalism; free time resources.

Thus, if human potential is a set of physiological, intellectual, psychological capabilities of a person that he can realize in the process of life, then labor potential is realized only in labor activity (Fig. 1). These concepts are indeed connected as general and particular, especially since, along with the labor potential of a person, one can single out his entrepreneurial potential (largely predetermined genetically), which he can realize in entrepreneurial activity.

Figure 1 - The ratio of the concepts of "human potential", "human capital", "labor force"

So, human capital is a measure of the ability to generate income embodied in a person. This ability covers all the qualitative characteristics of a person - mental, physical, intellectual, moral, personal, both innate and acquired, reflected in his income.

The labor potential of the country is the total potential of the labor potentials of individual workers united in labor collectives. So, in the modern economic dictionary it is said that "the labor potential of a country, region, enterprise is the labor opportunities currently available and foreseeable in the future, characterized by the number of able-bodied population, its professional and educational level, and other qualitative characteristics."

Labor potential has quantitative and qualitative certainty. The quantitative side of the labor potential is characterized by two indicators:

1) the total number of able-bodied population;

2) the amount of working time that the able-bodied population works out at the current level of labor intensity.

The product of these indicators gives a general quantitative characteristic of the labor potential for a certain period of time, which can be expressed in person-years.

The qualitative side of the labor potential is characterized by such indicators as:

1) the level of health status, physical working capacity of the population;

2) the level of educational and qualification training of the population.

Thus, the quantitative side of the labor potential reflects its extensive growth, while the qualitative side reflects its intensive growth. It is the qualitative side of it (labor potential) that determines, mainly, the level of labor activity, in which, as already noted, the active, active side of human potential is manifested.

Working people, as well as those citizens who want to work, but for various reasons do not yet have it (a job), represent human resources for labor.

Under labor resources understand the part of the population with physical development, mental abilities and knowledge necessary for the implementation of useful activities.

Age limits and socio-demographic composition of labor resources are determined by the system of state legislative acts. They (borders and composition) changed in different periods of development of our country.

Thus, during the period of the first five-year plan (1929-1933), the lower limit of working age was set at 14 years. By the end of the second five-year plan (by 1937), the lower limit was raised to 15 years. During the years of the Great Patriotic War this limit again dropped to 14 years. In the post-war years and up to 1995 inclusive - 16 years.

Federal Law of November 24, 1995 No. 131-FZ “On Amendments and Additions to the Code of Labor Laws Russian Federation» The lower limit of working age has been changed from 16 to 15 years.

With the introduction of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation from February 1, 2002, the working age is determined by the age of the person with whom the conclusion of an employment contract is allowed. This age for students can be: 14 years old, when work on employment contract allowed in free time from study with the consent of one of the parents (guardian, custodian) to perform light work; 15 years - if basic general education is completed or schooling is terminated; 16 years - for everyone (Article 63 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation).

To understand the concept of "labor resources", it is necessary to know that, depending on age, the entire population can be divided into three unequal parts:

1) persons younger than working age - from birth to 15 years inclusive;

2) persons of working (working) age - in Russia, women from 16 to 54 years old, men from 16 to 59 years old inclusive;

3) persons older than working age, that is, the retirement age, upon reaching which an old-age pension is established - in Russia, women - from 55 years old, men - from 60 years old.

The workforce in Russia includes:

1) population of working age - men aged 16-59 years and women 16-54 years old, with the exception of non-working invalids of labor and war of the first and second groups who retired on preferential terms (employees of the regions of the Far North and especially difficult professions with the right to retire earlier than the specified age);

2) the population older and younger than working age, employed in social production (working pensioners and teenagers).

The economically active population is the part of the population that provides the supply of its labor for the production of goods and the provision of various services. Quantitatively, this group of the population consists of the number of employed and unemployed.

Employed in the economy are persons who, during the period under review, performed paid employment as well as income-generating work self-employed, alone or with one or more partners, with or without the involvement of employees. The number of employees includes persons who performed work as helpers in a family enterprise, persons who were temporarily absent from work, as well as persons employed in household production of goods and services for sale.

The unemployed are persons of working age who in the period under review met the following criteria: did not have a job (profitable occupation); searched for a job, that is, applied to a state or commercial employment service, used or placed advertisements in the press, directly applied to the administration of the organization or the employer, used personal connections, etc., or took steps to organize their own business; were ready to start work during the period under review.

By the end of 2008, the economically active population of Russia reached 75.9 million people, or 53.5% of the total population of the country. There are 38.6 million pensioners in Russia, or 27% of the total population. At the same time, in recent years, the number of people older than 75 years has a tendency to increase. In Russia, the ratio of the number of people employed in the economy to pensioners is 1.8; in Sweden - 2.8; Great Britain - 3.1; USA - 4.0; Canada - 4.6. the higher the ratio, the more workers feed one pensioner.

In our country, this indicator is low also because we have a widespread practice of early (that is, before the legally established retirement age) retirement. Up to 25% of pensioners in Russia receive a pension on preferential terms: military personnel, miners, metallurgists, etc.

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4.5. Theory of human capital

The problem of the essence of human capital and its role in production has always interested economists. The first attempt to assess human capital was made by one of the founders of Western political economy W. Petit in his work "Political Arithmetic" (1690). Approximately 200 years later, the German statistician E. Engel and the English economist J. Nicholson turned to this issue, and later - the founder of the Cambridge School of Political Economy A. Marshall.

The growing importance of the human factor in production in the conditions of the scientific and technological revolution contributed to the emergence and expansion at the turn of the 60s of the twentieth century. theory of human capital.

The theory of human capital is a theory that combines different views, ideas, provisions on the process of formation, use of knowledge, skills, abilities of a person as a source of future income and appropriation of economic benefits.
It was developed by supporters of free competition and pricing in Western political economy American economists T.-V. Schultz and G.-S. Becker. Later, these problems were dealt with by J. Kendrick, Ts. Grilihes, E. Denison and others.
Schultz (Schultz) Theodore-William (1902-1998) - American economist, Nobel Prize winner (1979). Born near Arlington (South Dakota, USA). He studied at the college, graduate school of the University of Wisconsin, where in 1930. received a doctorate in agricultural economics.
He began teaching at Iowa State College. Four years later he headed the Department of Economic Sociology. Since 1943 and for nearly forty years he has been a professor of economics at the University of Chicago. He connected the activities of the teacher with active research work. In 1945, he prepared a collection of materials from the conference "Food for the World", which paid special attention to the factors of food supply, the structure and migration of agricultural labor, the professional qualifications of farmers, agricultural production technology and the direction of investment in farming. In "Agriculture in an Unstable Economy" (1945), he spoke out against the illiteracy of land, as it leads to soil erosion and other negative consequences for agricultural economy.
In 1949-1967. T.-V. Schultz is a member of the board of directors of the US National Bureau of Economic Research, then - an economic consultant for the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), several government departments and organizations.
Among his most famous works are "Production and prosperity of agriculture", "Transformation of traditional agriculture" (1964), "Investment in people: the economics of population quality" (1981), etc.

The American Economic Association awarded T.-V. Schultz medal named after F. Volker. He is an honorary professor at the University of Chicago; he has received honorary degrees from the Universities of Illinois, Wisconsin, Dijon, Michigan, North Carolina and the Catholic University of Chile.
According to the theory of human capital, two factors interact in production - physical capital (means of production) and human capital (acquired knowledge, skills, energy that can be used in the production of goods and services). People spend money not only on fleeting pleasures, but also on monetary and non-monetary income in the future. Investments are made in human capital. These are the costs of maintaining health, getting an education, the costs associated with finding a job, obtaining the necessary information, migration, and vocational training at work. The value of human capital is estimated by the potential income that it is able to provide.

T.-V. Schultz argued that human capital is a form of capital insofar as it serves as a source of future earnings or future satisfactions, or both. And he becomes human because he is an integral part of man.

According to the scientist, human resources are similar, on the one hand, to natural resources, and on the other hand, to material capital. Immediately after birth, a person, like natural resources, does not bring any effect. Only after appropriate "processing" does a person acquire the qualities of capital. That is, with the growth of costs for improving the quality of the labor force, labor as a primary factor is gradually transformed into human capital. T.-V. Schultz is convinced that, given the contribution of labor to output, human productive capacity is superior to all other forms of wealth combined. The peculiarity of this capital, according to the scientist, is that, regardless of the sources of formation (own, public or private), its use is controlled by the owners themselves.
The microeconomic foundation of the theory of human capital was laid by G.-S. Becker.

Becker (Becker) Harry-Stanley (born 1930) - American economist, Nobel Prize winner (1992). Born in Potsville (Pennsylvania, USA). In 1948 he studied at high school J. Madison in New York. In 1951 he graduated from Princeton University. His scientific career is associated with Columbia (1957-1969) and Chicago Universities. In 1957 he defended his doctoral dissertation and became a professor.
Since 1970 G.-S. Becker served as chair of the social sciences and sociology department at the University of Chicago. He taught at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. Collaborated with the weekly "Business Week".

He is an active supporter market economy. His legacy includes many works: "The Economic Theory of Discrimination" (1957), "Treatise on the Family" (1985), "The Theory of Rational Expectations" (1988), "Human Capital" (1990), "Rational Expectations and the Effect of the Price of Consumption" ( 1991), Fertility and Economics (1992), Training, Labor, Labor Quality and Economics (1992), etc.
The cross-cutting idea of ​​the scientist's works is that, when making decisions in his daily life, a person is guided by economic reasoning, although he is not always aware of this. He argues that the market of ideas and motives operates according to the same patterns as the market for goods: supply and demand, competition. This also applies to issues such as marriage, family, education, choice of profession. Economic evaluation and, in his opinion, many psychological phenomena are also amenable to measurement, such as, for example, satisfaction-dissatisfaction with the financial situation, the manifestation of envy, altruism, egoism, etc.
Opponents G.-S. Becker argue that by focusing on economic calculations, he downplays the importance of moral factors. However, the scientist has an answer to this: moral values ​​are different for different people, and it will take a long time until they become the same, if this is ever possible. A person with any morality and intellectual level seeks to receive personal economic benefits.

In 1987 G.-S. Becker was elected president of the American Economic Association. He is a member of the American Academy of Sciences and Arts, the US National Academy of Sciences, the US National Academy of Education, national and international societies, editor of economic journals, and honorary doctorates from Stanford, Chicago, Illinois, Hebrew Universities.

The starting point for G.-S. Becker had the idea that when investing in training and education, students and their parents act rationally, taking into account all the benefits and costs. Like "normal" entrepreneurs, they compare the expected marginal rate of return on such investments with the rate of return on alternative investments (percentages on bank deposits, dividends from valuable papers). Depending on what is more economically feasible, they decide whether to continue education or stop it. Rates of return regulate the distribution of investment between different types and levels of education, as well as between the education system and the rest of the economy. High rates of return indicate underinvestment, low rates indicate overinvestment.

G.-S. Becker carried out a practical calculation of the economic efficiency of education. For example, income from higher education is defined as the difference in lifetime earnings between those who graduated from college and those who did not go beyond high school. Among the costs of education, the main element was recognized as "lost earnings", that is, earnings that students did not receive during the years of study. (Essentially, lost earnings measure the value of students' time spent building their human capital.) Comparing the benefits and costs of education made it possible to determine the return on investment in a person.

The scientist insists on the difference between special and general investments in a person (and, more broadly, between general and specific resources in general). Special training gives the employee knowledge and skills that increase the future productivity of its recipient only in the firm that trains him (various forms of rotation programs, familiarization of newcomers with the structure and internal routine of the enterprise). In the process of general training, the employee acquires knowledge and skills that increase the productivity of its recipient, regardless of the company in which he works (learning to work on a personal computer).

According to G.-S. Becker, general training is paid in a certain way by the workers themselves. In an effort to improve their qualifications, they accept lower wages during the training period, and later have income from general training. After all, if firms financed training, then every time they fired such workers, they would get rid of their investments in them. Conversely, special training is paid for by firms, and they also receive income from it. In case of dismissal at the initiative of the company, the costs would be borne by employees. As a result, the general human capital, as a rule, is developed by special “firms” (schools, colleges), and the special one is formed directly at the workplace.
The term “special human capital” has helped to understand why long-serving workers in the same job are less likely to change jobs, and why vacancies in firms are filled predominantly through internal job travel rather than through external recruitment.

The theory of human capital also has its opponents. In particular, the Ukrainian scientist S. Mocherny considers its main shortcomings to be an amorphous interpretation of the essence of capital, which includes not only everything that surrounds a person, but also individual features of the person himself; ignoring the fact that the costs of developing education, acquiring qualifications form only the ability to work, a labor force of appropriate quality, and not capital itself; the fallacy of the opinion that such capital is inseparable from man himself; a number of provisions of the theory on the structure of human capital are not weighed, in particular, the assignment to the elements of this category of the search for the necessary information on the value of prices and incomes is not correct, since such a search is not always successful, as evidenced by significant unemployment in most countries; the position that in order to transform the acquired knowledge, experience, creativity and other elements of a human worker into future income and the appropriation of economic benefits employee must constantly work, which means that the source of such income is not the level of education and qualifications in itself, but the work of a person. The biggest shortcoming of the theory of human capital, according to opponents, is its ideological orientation.

At the same time, the changing nature of modern production and new requirements for knowledge and qualifications determine that high education is a necessary basis for achieving the best indicators of production activity.

Moreover, G.-S. Becker believed that a low-skilled worker does not become a capitalist due to the diffusion (dispersal) of ownership of corporate shares (although this point of view is popular). This happens through the acquisition of knowledge and skills that have economic value. The scientist was convinced that lack of education is the most serious factor holding back economic growth.

Despite the fact that for a long time many scientists and even supporters of the theory of human capital considered it unsuitable for practical use, in recent years, scientists and managers in many countries have made attempts to implement its provisions. Several aspects contribute to this:

1.G.-S. Becker quantified the return on investment in people and compared them with the actual return on investment in most US firms, which helped to concretize and broaden the understanding of the cost-effectiveness of investment in human capital. The emergence of a large number of private educational institutions, the revitalization of consulting firms conducting short-term seminars and specialized courses, indicate that profitability in the private sector of educational activities is not at all lower than in other areas of entrepreneurship. For example, in the USA in the 60s of the XX century. the profitability of educational activities was 10-15% higher than the profitability of other types of commercial activities.

2. The theory of human capital explained the structure of the distribution of personal income, the age-old dynamics of earnings, and the inequality in pay for male and female labor. Thanks to her, the attitude of politicians to the costs of education has also changed. Educational investment has come to be seen as a source of economic growth, as important as "ordinary" capital investment.

The concept of national wealth acquires a broader interpretation. It covers today, together with the material elements of capital (valuation of land, buildings, structures, equipment, inventory items) financial assets and the materialized knowledge and ability of people to work productively. The accumulated scientific knowledge, in particular, materialized in new technologies, investments in human health began to be taken into account in macroeconomic statistics as elements of national wealth that have an intangible form.

A new interpretation of "human" investment in ensuring socio-economic development and social progress has been recognized by international organizations. The situation in the spheres of education, healthcare and other factors characterizing the level of development of human resources and the quality of life of the population have become the main objects of attention of international statistics. As integral indicators of the social development of society and the state of human resources, in particular, the human development index (social development index) is used; index of intellectual potential of the society; an indicator of the value of human capital per capita; coefficient of vitality of the population, etc.

Since 1995, human development reports have been prepared in Ukraine. Thus, the reports for 1995-1999 published by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) became the basis for substantiating human development as a means and goal of national development. Based on these reports, the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine reviewed and adopted the Human Development Index developed by UNDP. Today, this index has become an important indicator of human development, which is monitored by State Committee statistics on a regular basis.
3.Theory G.-S. Becker substantiated the economic need for large investments (public and private) in the "human factor". This approach is implemented in practice. In particular, the per capita human capital index (expresses the level of per capita spending by the state, firms and citizens on education, health care and other sectors of the social sphere), used by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, increased in the postwar years by 0.25% in year. In the 60s, growth stopped, which was primarily due to the demographic characteristics of the period, and in the 80s it accelerated - by almost 0.5% annually.
According to G.-S. Becker, investments in the education of citizens, in medical care, in particular in children's, in social programs, aimed at maintaining, supporting, replenishing personnel, are equivalent to investing in the creation or acquisition of new equipment or technologies, which in the future will be returned with the same profits. So, according to his theory, the support of schools and universities by entrepreneurs is not charity, but concern for the future of the state.

The theory of human capital has created a unified analytical framework for studying the funds invested in education and training, and also explained the differences between countries in the structure of those employed in the economy. After all, differences in the supply of human capital in different countries more significant than the differences in the supply of real capital. Among the problems in the solution of which the theory of human capital by T.-V. Schultz called the phenomenon when countries rich in capital, in particular, created material funds, export mainly labor-intensive, rather than capital-intensive products.
Having studied the problems of human capital, G.-S. Becker became one of the founders of new sections of economic theory - the economics of discrimination, the economics of foreign economics, the economics of crime, etc. He threw a "bridge" from economics to sociology, demography, criminalistics; he was the first to introduce the principle of rational and optimal behavior in those industries where, as researchers previously believed, habits and irrationality dominated.

The main social conclusion of the theory of human capital is that in modern conditions improving the quality of the labor force is of greater importance than the growth of the capital provision of labor. Control over production passes from the hands of the owners of monopolies on material capital to those who own knowledge. This theory opens up the possibility of assessing the contribution to the economic growth of the educational fund (by analogy with the assessment of the contribution of fixed property funds), as well as the possibility of managing investment processes based on a comparison of the return on investment in property funds and the educational fund.

In terms of public form employment- this is a certain set of socio-economic relations between people about providing the able-bodied population with jobs, the formation, distribution and redistribution of labor resources with the aim of their participation in socially useful labor and ensuring expanded reproduction of the labor force. This set of socio-economic relations finds its expression in such economic categories as individual (family) and collective labor activity, labor process, intensity and productivity, labor mobility, general education and vocational training, wage and etc.
There are three main types employment: complete, rational and efficient. Complete employment- this is the provision by society to the entire able-bodied population of the opportunity to engage in socially useful work, on the basis of which individual (within the family) and collective (with the participation of firms, companies and the state) reproduction of the labor force and the satisfaction of the entire set of needs are carried out. Rational employment - employment, which takes place in society, taking into account the expediency of the redistribution and use of labor resources, their gender, age and educational structure. This kind employment is not always effective, since it is carried out in order to improve the age and sex structure employment, attracting the able-bodied population of certain backward regions to labor activity, etc. Effective employment- this is employment, which is carried out in accordance with the requirements of an intensive type of reproduction, criteria of economic feasibility and social performance, is focused on reducing manual, non-prestigious and hard physical labor.
Labor activity, depending on the form of ownership, is carried out at state, collective and private enterprises. Private, in turn, are divided into individual (family), labor and private capitalist. The vast majority of the working-age population in the developed world works in the private sector. In terms of the structure of the national economy, most of the working-age population busy in the sphere of non-material production (about 2/3 of the total number, and in the USA - more than 70%). AT agriculture busy from 2.5 to 5% of the total workforce.

Distinguish between basic and special forms employment. The basic form is regulated by labor law and model rules internal regulations for different categories of employees. Special or non-traditional forms employment(work at home, part-time work, individual and collective labor activity, etc.) are used in accordance with special legal regulations. In the USA and England in non-traditional forms employment covered more than 30% of the workforce.

In the countries of the former USSR, the type dominates employment, which corresponds to the technological mode of production based on manual and mechanized labor. In structure employment industrial and agricultural activities predominate with the widespread use of simple physical labor (more than 40% of the total number of employees). The developed countries of the world passed this stage in the 1940s and 1950s. Today the information type prevails there. employment, associated with the collection, processing and provision of information in the field of production and circulation, etc. The cost of training a quality workforce in high-tech industries is on the rise. In the USA, for example, 75-85% of managers, specialists, and workers undergo retraining. The private sector trains almost a third of the workforce every year.

In modern conditions, active regulation of the labor market is carried out. The state influences all demand through the development of state entrepreneurship, the creation and implementation of programs public works, providing bonuses to entrepreneurs for creating jobs in economically backward areas, training and retraining of personnel, etc. The state regulates the supply of labor through the reduction of the working day, the development of education, health care, the provision of assistance to the unemployed, their retraining, the creation of labor exchanges, etc.
Essence and causes unemployment.

Unemployment is a socio-economic phenomenon in which part of the able-bodied population cannot find work, becomes relatively redundant, replenishing the reserve army of labor. By definition international organization labor, unemployed - a person who wants and can work, but does not have a job.
Unemployment first arose in Great Britain at the beginning of the 19th century, but until the end of the century it did not have a massive character, and increased only during periods economic crises. So, in the USA in 1920-1929. the average number of unemployed was 2.2 million people, and in the 30s. - already about 20%.

The first attempt to find out the essence and causes unemployment undertaken by T. Malthus. He explained its appearance by too rapid population growth, which was ahead of the increase in the number of means of production. He saw the reason in the eternal biological law. This theory, with certain modifications, still exists today. means of overcoming unemployment Malthus and neo-Malthusians consider wars, epidemics, conscious birth control, etc. The main shortcomings of this theory are, firstly, the consideration of man only as a biological being, ignoring his social essence. Secondly, Malthus and his followers ignored (or significantly underestimated) the role of scientific and technical progress, the possibility of ensuring faster growth in the production of consumer goods as a result of using the achievements of science and technology. The conclusions of this theory have not been confirmed by practice.
In the mid 50s. technological theory emerged unemployment, according to which its cause is the progress of technology, technical changes in production, especially accidental. To fight with unemployment according to its authors, follows through the limitation of technological progress, its slowdown.

Most common nowadays Keynesian theory unemployment, according to which the reason lies in the insufficient demand for goods, due to the propensity of people to save and insufficient incentives to invest. Keynesians argued that to eliminate unemployment possible through government stimulation of demand and investment. A special role in the increase in investment was assigned to the reduction of interest on loans. means of combating unemployment J.Keynes considered an increase in investments that could go to the expansion of public works and even to military spending.
According to one of the concepts unemployment due to the high level of wages, therefore, in order to reduce unemployment wages need to be reduced. The neoclassical school believes unemployment natural phenomenon.
Marxist theory explains unemployment laws of the capitalist mode of production, above all, the laws of competition, forcing the capitalists to increase investment, improve technology, which leads to a relative increase in the cost of means of production in comparison with the cost of labor, the growth of the organic composition of capital. The latter is also connected with the cyclical processes of capital accumulation and the peculiarities of reproduction. In Marxist theory, this is called the universal law of capitalist accumulation. Its essence lies in the growing polarization of capitalist society, the presence of internally necessary, stable and essential links between the increase in the volume of functioning capital, social wealth, the productive power of the labor of the proletariat, on the one hand, and the growth of the relative industrial reserve army, overpopulation, poverty, official pauperism, on the other hand. another. An integral element of this law is the law of accumulation, the main forms of manifestation of which include absolute and relative impoverishment.
The universal law of accumulation makes it possible to reveal the dialectical unity of causes associated both with the technological mode of production and with its social form. In the first case, such a reason is the progress of technology, which determines the outstripping growth of demand for means of production in comparison with the demand for labor. Technological theory is limited to this explanation. unemployment. However, such an explanation is not enough, since in the conditions of a humanistic society, overcoming unemployment would not be a particular problem: the laid-off workers would be given the opportunity to find employment in other areas and industries, for employed the working day would be shortened, there would be no employment at two or more jobs, overtime would be excluded, etc. Unfortunately, this picture is not true. So the search for reasons unemployment must necessarily be supplemented by an analysis of the social form - the conditions of competitive struggle, the characteristics of capitalist accumulation, which make unemployment inevitable, since "it is the main reserve for meeting the additional demand for labor during the recovery period.

At the same time, it also acts as an important factor in pressure on workers when wages are reduced.

Along with the noted systemic causes, unemployment can also be caused by a complex of other reasons related to structural changes in the economy, the uneven development of productive forces in the national economy and individual regions, with the constant progress of technology, especially its revolutionary form - scientific and technological revolution, the disproportionate development of the economy, limited demand for goods and services, and finally , with an elementary search by employees for new jobs, where wages are higher, more meaningful work, etc. Depending on the conditions, these reasons unemployment can act as the main ones, since the law of capitalist accumulation is not universal, since it does not operate in all socio-economic formations and even not throughout the entire period of the existence of capitalism.

There are current, agrarian, stagnant unemployment. The current one is generated by structural and technological changes in the economy, crises of over- and under-production, etc. This category of the unemployed includes persons who have the necessary general educational and vocational training, are physically and mentally healthy. The immediate cause of them unemployment is the excess of the supply of labor over its demand due to the uneven and disproportionate development of productive forces in various spheres, branches and regions of the national economy. Most often, the current overpopulation is a short- and medium-term unemployment. Agrarian overpopulation is due to the lack of a sufficient number of jobs in cities, which forces rural workers to remain in the countryside, earning extra money in the city, since the income from labor on the land is not enough for a normal existence. Stagnant overpopulation is characterized by irregularity employment certain categories population (seasonal work, home work). The bottom layer of this category of the unemployed are paupers (disabled and those who cannot find work for a long time).

In accordance with derived reasons (relative to the main one), they distinguish unemployment technological, resulting from the displacement of workers due to the introduction of new, as a rule, automated technology; frictional - associated with the turnover of the labor force due to its professional, age and regional movements; structural, due to structural changes that cause inconsistencies in the structure of jobs and professional inconsistencies; cyclical, associated with economic cycles and, above all, crises; conversion, caused by the end of hostilities, a significant reduction in the production of military products; regional, institutional, hidden. In the developed countries of the world, about 50% of the increase in the unemployed is due to the structural form unemployment. Depending on age, youth are distinguished unemployment, unemployment among older people, etc.
Unemployment causes significant economic damage the state. According to A. Owen's law, its increase by 1% leads to a loss of annual production by more than 2%, and the annual growth of GNP in the amount of 2.7% keeps the share of the unemployed at a constant level. Lack of work puts considerable psychological pressure on the unemployed themselves, increases the number of heart diseases and tragic cases. The loss of a job in developed countries is tantamount to the psychological impact of the death of a close relative.

In Western economic literature, the concept of A. Philips, which substantiates the inverse relationship between inflation rates and the level of unemployment over a short period of time. For a longer time, according to the conclusions of modern economists, this dependence does not appear.

The number of officially registered unemployed in the developed countries of the world increased from 11.7 million people. in 1965 to over 50 million in the mid-90s. If in the USA under full employment in 1946 understood the limitation unemployment 4% level, then in the early 90s. - already 7%.

The above data testify to the operation of the law of population, the essence of which, according to K. Marx, lies in the growth of the industrial reserve army of labor.