Employment Promotion in Rural Areas: How Can the State Program Be Properly Adjusted

Natalia I. Shagayda – Director of Center for Agro-Food Policy of the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration; Head of Agricultural Policy Department of the Gaidar Institute, Doctor of Economic Sciences (Moscow, Russia). Е-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Alexandra A. Potapova – Junior Researcher of the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (Moscow, Russia). E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

The State is implementing the policy of labor market (human resource) development in rural areas in the framework of the State Program for Comprehensive Development of Rural Areas (hereinafter – State Program). It is expected that the allocation of state subsidies designed to cover the costs of employers incurred by them in the course of training their personnel to acquire the professions needed by the agrarian sector will conduce to the achievement of the State Program’s target – an increase, by the year 2025, of the employment rate of able-bodied rural residents. However, an analysis of the State Program’s provisions has raised doubts concerning the actual possibility of achieving the set targets. In fact, the draft of the State Program’s latest version is capable only of partially improving the existing mechanisms.

Key words: agriculture, rural population, State program for comprehensive, development of rural areas, apprenticeship contract.