The article, based on data of three sociological researches held in the Novosibirsk Oblast, considers development problems of self-employment among the unemployed population as one of the directions of the active policy promoting population’s employment and reducing unemployment. The dynamics of recovery from unemployment is studied, namely the unemployed population’s willingness and readiness for self-employment, the focus on its specific types, as well as on the necessary forms of support. The research has revealed favorable changes and trends in life and consciousness of unemployed citizens and their attitude to self-employment: the decreasing amount of citizens compelled to as little money as possible on most necessary things and living in poverty, growing incomes from self-employment in personal subsidiary plots, the increasing amount of people ready for self-employment, social mobility and self-reliance. But paternalistic moods of half of the respondents and the dominance of passive and compelled strategies raise concerns. It has been concluded that the majority of the respondents considers self-employment as a phenomenon of considerable potential, which does not save from unemployment, but is capable of providing the fulfilment of needs of a considerable part of rural population for working and earning money. Besides income as a means of living, self-employment forms an important position of the unemployed social activity, as opposed to social dependency. Measures to support the self-employed should be implemented either at the federal or at regional level. This would promote the increase in business activity, the growth of middle class and the general increase in Russian economic efficiency
Keywords
government support, unemployment, self-employment, unemployed population, active employment policy, business of one’s own, personal subsidiary plot