Coping with employment issues through commuting: Evidence from Central Russia

Abstract

Commuting to work has become a widespread practice over the last several decades. Some relatively strong employment issues in rural Russian municipalities, as well as a significant wage gap between them and the major cities, fosters daily commuting as well as commuting with long periods of time spent at employment locations, known in Russia as otkhodnichestvo. Based on official statistical data and our own surveys conducted in Tula and Kostroma regions, we analysed the spatial differentiations between the share of commuters in the employed population of rural municipalities, as well as the variations in individual socio-economic characteristics between rural commuters and non-commuters, in general, and between the commuters themselves. Our analysis of the latter characteristics suggests that there is in fact more difference between the rural commuters and non-commuters in Russia than between daily commuters and those engaged in otkhodnichestvo, indicating similar motives and, perhaps, even personalities of commuters. Giving the identified differences, commuting on a larger scale does not seem to be a universal tool to cope with employment issues, as some population groups are more likely to engage in it than others.

Russian periphery is dying in movement: a cohort assessment of internal youth migration in Central Russia

“…Even census data cannot be trusted blindly (Andreev 2012). Some part of the population mobility is unseen by the official migration statistics (Gunko and Nefedova 2017). The other limitation is attributable to study design.…”

Moving towards more cohesive and polycentric spatial patterns? Evidence from the Czech Republic

“…However, Mareš () points to the fact that the potential of many local labour markets was not often sufficient to ensure proper functioning of industrial production sites. Centrally command socialist economy therefore had to solve symptoms of a lack of compliance between industrialization and urbanization policies, for example, poor availability of qualified workforce, long commuting distances, or gender and age imbalance in the industrial towns (Gunko & Nefedova, ; Musil & Link, ).…”

"Administrative Boundaries, Transport Accessibility and Functional Relations: a Critical Review of Administrative Regions in the Czech Republic from a Spatial Perspective"

“…Representative processes mainly include commuting to work, to schools and services (e.g. Gunko and Nefedova, 2017).…”