ИСТИНА

The study is dedicated to examine features of post-socialist transformation of local labour markets by the example of municipalities in Asian part of Russia. This process has begun in early 1990s and was intensified by several economic crises and recessions (in 1990s, in late 2000s, in the last years). This transformation has been causing an increasing socio-economic polarization in Russia at regional and local levels. An increase in territorial inequality initiated by the transformation of local labor markets creates center-peripheral imbalances (by personal income, living standards, job diversity), primarily at the regional level (between large cities, regional centers and the rest of the territory). The transformation of municipal labour markets creates stable and growing reversible migration flows (commuting labour migration, seasonal work). Thus, the transformation of municipal labour markets underlie socio-economic polarization at regional and local levels, but it has been poorly explored. Available statistics indicates different reasons of changes in capacity and structure of local labor markets. These reasons differ by town size, industrial specialization of towns, its geographical location. Such changes as employment shrinkage in large and medium-sized enterprises, simplification of labour market structure (growth of service and "budget" sector shares), increasing role of small and medium-sized enterprises have been found in the most of municipalities. At the same time regional centers and large cities have passed the transformation phase and have adapted to modern market economy. Thus, in these cities local labor markets are becoming extremely attractive for labour force from regional periphery.