Socio-Economic Behavior of Russian Households in 1994–2019. In: Bulletin of the Russian Monitoring of the Economic Situation and Health of the Population of the Higher School of Economics (RLMS-HSE). Iss.11 [Electronic resource]: collection of scientific articles ...

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Abstract

In this paper, we analyze “Russia Longitudinal Monitoring Survey – Higher School of Economics” (RLMS‑HSE) for 1994–2019. In 2019, the recovery of real household income continued to slow down. Household income grew only 6.0% in 2019, compared to 7.1% in 2018. Household income from government transfer payments increased from 40.8% in 2018 to 41.1% in 2019; work‑related income went up from 46.5 to 47.5%. Income inequality continued to decrease as the top 20‑percent of households earned 2.6 times more than the bottoms 20‑percent in 2019. After a moderate decrease in 2018, household expenditures grew by 3.6% in 2019. Although food expenditures stagnated, non‑food spending rose by 5.1% and almost offset a 6.5‑percent decrease in 2017–2018. The spending gap between the top and the bottoms 20‑percent of households remains stable. In 2019, well‑off families spent 4.7 times more than low‑income households. The unemployment rate went up from 3.3% in 2018 to 3.3% in 2019. The unemployment rose from 3.2 to 3.3% among men and from 3.3 to 4.0% among women. The growth of short‑term unemployment was of particular concern. The workforce participation rate increased by 0.5 p.p. and stood at 81.5% of the adult population. Men continued to outperform women in the labor market. Women earned 75.2% of men average income in 2019, which was an increase of 1.3 p.p., compared to 2018. In 2019, a positive trend in reported life satisfaction resumed. The proportion of those generally unsatisfied with their life went down from 24.7% in 2018 to 23.2% in 2019. The share of those discontented with the financial standing of their families decreased from 57.9 to 56.2%. On the contrary, the proportion of those who saw future improvement in their financial circumstances rose from 19.6 to 21.8%. Despite that, the majority of respondents (49.7%) expected no changes in household welfare. In 2019, respondents felt less anxious about losing their job but more concerned over the prospect of not finding another one. The proportion of those who felt that their position was insecure dropped to 61.0%, while the share of those who were pessimistic about their chances to find a new job went up from 42.4 to 43.1%. There was another increase in job satisfaction, although low wages remained the leading cause of discontent at the workplace.