State employment centers in Russia: Assessment by service recipients

Background: Many countries spend up to 1% of GDP on implementing employment policies and assisting unemployed citizens, so it is important to assess the effectiveness of spending these funds. One of the Russian federal projects focuses on increasing the level of service recipients' satisfaction. The target indicator is 90.0% of satisfied recipients by the end of 2024. Purpose: This study aims to analyze the state of employment policy implementation in Russia. Study design/methodology/approach: The information base of the study is data of two questionnaire surveys of registered unemployed conducted in 2020-2021. In 2020, 4,800 unemployed people were interviewed in order to assess their satisfaction with the services received at the employment center. In 2021, 1,000 people from this number were re-interviewed in order to assess usefulness of the provided services. The survey evaluated several parameters, which influence the recipient's satisfaction with provided state employment services. Descriptive statistics methods were used to analyze the data. Finding/conclusions: The results show that over the past 3 years, respondents have noted positive changes in the work of state employment centers-expanding opportunities to receive services via the Internet, reducing queues in employment centers, increasing the availability of information about services. Also, the respondents rate usefulness of the received services for future quite highly employment. At the same time, low speed of service delivery, a large list of necessary documents, and insufficient customer orientation of employment centers staff are still being zones for development and improvement. Limitations/future research: The limitations of the study include a small number of existing studies on this problem, as well as the sample size. In further research, it is advisable to increase the number of unemployed interviewed in order to obtain more accurate and objective assessments of satisfaction with the services provided in employment centers.