The economically active population is represented by citizens who offer their labor in production for a certain period. According to the UN methodology, this category includes entrepreneurs, employees and people who do not have work at the appointed time, but who want to get it. In other words, this category of population includes employed and unemployed citizens.
Employment provides for the activities of people to meet social and their needs, which do not contradict the current legislation and bring mainly labor income.
The economically active population in terms of employed citizens includes persons of 16 years of age and regardless of gender, who in the analyzed period:
- Worked on full or part-time employment for a certain remuneration;
- were not at work due to illness, vacation, days off, etc .;
- performed free work in family enterprises.
In many international standards regarding the concept of “economically active population” you can find the following division of this term:
- usually an active population - applies to a long period of time (over a year);
- active population in the current period - applies to a short period of time (week or day).
The economically inactive population is represented by citizens of a certain age who, for whatever reason, are not part of the labor force represented by the employed and the unemployed. This type may include the following categories:
- cadets, students, pupils (full-time education), this category also includes graduate students, doctoral students who are also in stationary education;
- receiving pensions of various types;
- persons who are on disability pension of any of the groups;
- persons on leave to care for sick relatives or children;
- persons who may not work, regardless of the main source of income.
Among the main causes of unemployment are the following:
- staff reduction or liquidation of the organization ;
- the end of the seasonal work or contract;
- dismissal of their own free will;
- reaching retirement age ;
- other personal reasons.
The economically active population can be replenished from a number of persons listed above, since students once finish their studies, children grow up at homemakers, and sometimes such a need arises for people who do not want to work.
The most important components of the information that characterizes labor resources are information about the economically inactive population, since the transition of part of the population from active to inactive, and vice versa, is in constant motion.
In appropriate terminology, the concept of “economically active population” has been used for a long time. In Russia, this term could only be found in the scientific literature. However, in practice, the application of this concept began with the transition of the State Statistics Committee of the Russian Federation to international standards (1992). During this period, sample surveys among the population on the issue of employment began to be regularly conducted. At the same time, publication began in official collections of the number of identified this category of citizens.
The economically active population of Russia in June 2012 amounted to 76.4 million people, and, according to statistics, it is gradually increasing. Of the total number, 72.7 million people or 94.5% are working, the rest are unemployed. Compared to May of this year, the number of employed people increased (0.2%), but the number of unemployed increased more (1.3%).