the Sociologists of the USUE together with Bulgarian colleagues are planning a large study on how remote employment will change the priorities of citizens in the choice of residence.
The study will be called "Remote employment, life balance, migration of youth in the conditions of instability". Now scientists make an application to the Russian Foundation for basic research. According to their hypothesis, the opportunities for remote employment will fundamentally change people’s view of what constitutes a comfortable place to stay: the cities will cease to be the centre of attraction and people will be more willing to stay in small towns and rural areas.
– the First bells are already there. Mode isolation made me think about the value of private housing in the form of a house with a lawn where you can always walk around without a mask and gloves without fear of catching the virus. In addition, there are opportunities for remote work, which liberates people from being tied to the office, – says head of chair of labour economy and personnel management of the Ural state University of Economics Natalia Thin. – Until recently, telecommuting has been involved less than one percent of the population. Now in the labour market appears more and more of these jobs, so there is every reason to believe that willing to work at a distance will be more. People will start to realize that they can get high salary and live in a small town, and live better than metropolis – not least because the province is a lot cheaper.
Head of chair of applied sociology, Ural Federal University Anatoly Merenkov believes that working remotely is just one of the incentives that encourage them to move from the city to a small town.
– I Think people who are willing and able to work remotely after the pandemic, there will be more, but only among those engaged in intellectual work, – says the scientist. – Assuming that such format of work will be chosen per cent of seven to ten. But there are other factors that affect the choice of domicile: infrastructure, opportunities, access to medicine, and culture. The gap between city and village in our country is still very large. Last year we adopted the state program of development of rural areas if opportunities for remote employment will expand in parallel with the implementation of this program, then maybe the village will become more attractive to people.
Peripherals will benefit from this: there will be new tax deductions and the interest of people in the development of the area, creating a comfortable environment, not inferior in quality to the big cities. If the hypothesis of scientists confirmed, you can expect a struggle sky��longer settlements for each new resident.
– Small towns in this case you should think about creating an attractive environment: the allocation of land plots for individual construction, reasonable prices for new housing, social infrastructure, medicine, education, – said Natalia Thin.
