Labor Values and the Pan-/Epidemic Situation: Between Survival and Adaptation (Based on Kharkov Youth Online Survey Results)

Abstract

The article reveals the issue of the impact of labor values on professional orientations and practices, actualized by the pan- / epidemic situation and quarantine measures. Based on our own online survey of Kharkov youth, key trends and manifestations in this area are analyzed. The factor structure of labor values of Kharkov youth is investigated. It is emphasized that these factors in themselves are indicative, in particular, in terms of the concept of materialist and post-materialist values. Three clusters based on the above factor analysis are presented and analyzed. Particular emphasis is placed on the internal structure of these clusters (pragmatists, materialist professionals and idealists), their most important characteristics (gender, educational structure, economic status in current and potential dimensions, respondents’ perception of these clusters of their professional position and prospects). A number of paradoxes related to the incoherence and inconsistency of subjective, objective and reflective structures of professional employment are shown and proved. In particular, the author demonstrates the specificity of labor practices during quarantine, analyzed multi-aspect and multi-dimensional. An equally important problem is job satisfaction, which also demonstrates cluster differentiation. But the most important, from the author's point of view, is the issue of emigration attitudes of representatives of these three clusters regarding possible migration to another region of the country or even to another country, which is especially relevant in a pan-/epidemic situation, since it is these attitudes that in a certain way affect the state of the market labor, demographic prospects and future economic development of the region. Some conclusions are formulated, both about the factor structure of labor values, and about the nature of the clusters allocated on this basis, and about features of adaptive tactics of representatives of these clusters.