We know that youth unemployment has hit a “record high” in our country and that the problem is now a “national crisis”. According to the official statistics youth unemployment in Russia is about 27%, it is much higher than the average rate in the world, which is about 12%. Such a high rate of youth unemployment in our country has a whole number of negative repercussions. And only a few of them are hard drinking and drug addiction in rural areas of Russia, not dropping brain drain, and increasing crime rate. Besides, the whole generation, the so called future of Russia, finds itself overboard the society. Therefore no doubts that some serious measures should be taken by the government and by some employers in order to diminish the unemployment rate among young people in our country. On this essay I would like to examine some possible solutions of such the grand problem as youth joblessness.
Firstly, I assume our state could introduce tax privileges to those enterprises, which hire young people with some qualifications and required education but without any work experience. It would be really beneficial for all the sides involved: for the state, for enterprises and of course for youngsters. Also the state could sponsor the probation period of young and inexperienced employees. And in the case if a young employee passes his/her internship successfully and he/she is good to his/her company, this company will refund those money to state. Secondly, I believe it would not be bad to create a list of jobs that are regarded as the most necessary and important for the present Russian economy. Thereby high school graduates could choose exactly those university departments which would have guaranteed their future employment. As a result of it the number of unemployed graduating students would decline due to lower competition among graduates.
Besides, the admission of students in specialties that have a surplus of manpower could also have been reduced. The whole point is that Russia does not need so many lawyers, economists and journalists. All in all it would be better to multiply salaries for state-financed teachers, physicians and other employees of government-financed organizations. Many young people are not interested to work for peanuts in state schools, vocational schools and universities, and as well as they are not interested to work the same peanuts in state hospitals and clinics. Anyway the Russian government should admit that teachers and physicians will be always demanded. But the current situation demonstrates us that anon we will have neither good state teachers nor qualified and skilled doctors. And it is lamentable without doubts. To increase salaries of all budget workers is one of the possible variants to solve the issue of high unemployment rate among young people received pedagogical, medical or other education, suitable for the budget sphere employees.
Thirdly, I consider it is essential to change the programs of practice for Russian students. The fact is that all employees are suggested to have some full-fledged work experience, but newly-made university graduates just cannot have it. For instance it would be really great, if all the universities encouraged fourth and fifth year students to combine their studies with work corresponding to the acquired education. In this case a university could provide its students with such jobs. After all a student received good work experience and practical skills while studying, will not have any problems with applying for a job in the future. And moreover, would anybody really want to live in a house built by any greenhorns not having any considerable practice? Or maybe anybody would like to fly in planes projected by them?
Fourthly, I reckon that the government ought to favor the popularization of blue-collar jobs among young people. And the first and the most important thing to do is to raise wages of manual workers. Nevertheless our government doesn’t seem to pay any attention to unpopularity of blue-collar jobs among population. As for example, wages of builders and asphalt spreaders seem to satisfy only guest workers from CIA countries. Finally, the Russian government could take all the possible measures to improve business conditions in Russia. Everyone knows that it is not so easy to do business in Russia: more than often you need to slip money to local authorities and some other people involved in promotion of your business. However many young people in their twenties are very ambitious and enthusiastic, so they are quite eager to achieve success in entrepreneurial ventures.
Clearly, entrepreneurship is not for everyone, and so cannot be viewed as a large-scale solution to the youth employment crisis. Entrepreneurship requires business insight, quick wits and an entrepreneurial spirit, which many youth do not have and cannot acquire, even after training. But anyway self-employment could be one of solutions of this problem. In summary I would like to mention the fact that the notion of “a young specialist” has become a thing of the past. In the Soviet epoch all students were assured that they would be employed after graduation. There was no problem then, but nowadays everything is unclear. Actually you have no confidence in your future and you cannot expect that the state will render you any help. It seems as though our authorities are not interested at all in people’s welfare and consequently in the development of the country.
Anyway school and university graduates are really vulnerable people who need extra help of the state and enterprises to get workplaces and finally find their place in the society. Of course young people do not have any good work experience, but after all it is only a matter of time. In the future experienced and seasoned workers will have to be replaced by present unpracticed young people, whether or no. That is why the Russian government should provide assistance to young people in their employment. If our jobless youngsters not to be hired nowadays, they will not be ready for tough competition on the modern labor market afterwards. And everything will be even much worse than now.