Diversification of Russians’ Employment Through Self-Employment

Abstract

The structural transformation of the Russian labor market accelerated by digitalization, gig economy development, and external challenges makes the population search for new, more flexible forms of employment. Self-employment has become a key driver of these changes, yet its impact on real labor behavior strategies remains insufficiently studied. This article analyzes the diversification of labor strategies among Russia's self-employed and defines the role of the self-employment regime in adaptation to the modern labor market. The study uses a mixed methodology combining macro-statistics (Federal Tax Service, Rosstat), digital footprint analysis (Google Trends), and indepth content analysis with parsing of the largest Telegram community of self-employed (over 45K messages, 966 active users), linking macro-trends with micro-level motives. The resulting analysis empirically proves that self-employment is not a single strategy but a polymotivational adaptive module forming a continuum of behavioral practices. Value-based and psychological motives dominate: 44% expressed dissatisfaction with hired labor and 35% seek autonomy, indicating a proactive shift in labor consciousness. Simultaneously, forced macroeconomic and socio-demographic factors confirm self-employment as a critical social buffer. Extensive empirical material substantiates a mass transition to the portfolio career model — dynamic management of multiple projects and income sources. Self-employment in Russia has become a systemic institutionalized phenomenon driving employment diversification, not a marginal or temporary segment. The results challenge the view that the professional income tax serves merely as a fiscal tool and indicates a need to understand it as a factor shaping new labor behavior models. This requires the state to ensure regulatory stability that will reduce vulnerability among the new selfemployed category of workers.