The status and ways of providing the rural population employment in Ukraine

The purpose of the article is to analyse the status, highlight the basic factors of influence and determine the main ways to provide employment of the rural population in Ukraine. Research methods. In order to assess the status and trends in the employment of the rural population, economic and statistical methods (comparative analysis, average and relative values, trend analysis, graphical method, index analysis, etc.) were used in analytical studies. To determine the factors influencing the rural population employment, a system analysis was used. With the assistance of the abstract-logical method and the method of generalization, the ways of realization of the state policy for the support and development of the agrarian sphere in order to provide the rural population employment were outlined. Research results. It has been established that the dynamics of the level of the rural population employment in Ukraine has a cyclical nature – at the stage of economic growth, it rises, followed by a period of decline (at the stage of economic downturn). It has been substantiated that the characteristic features of rural employment are: a reduction in the rural population, including the economically active, deformation of its age structure, misbalancing of the conjuncture of the rural labour market, lack of developed social infrastructure, reduction of the sphere of agricultural works, changes in the structure of agricultural production, low wages, etc. The factors of influence on the rural population employment in Ukraine are systematized by groups: individual, sociodemographic, economic, political and institutional. The main ways to provide employment of the rural population in Ukraine are identified. Scientific novelty. The scientific and methodological approaches to the study of the rural population employment in terms of determining the influence factors and organizational and economic basis for providing of the rural population employment in Ukraine were further developed. Namely, the priority directions of state policy have been identified, which are aimed at providing employment of the rural population through the adoption of legal, institutional, sectoral, economic, investment and innovation, business and other measures. Practical significance. The main thesis and conclusions set out in the article have been brought to the level of practical recommendations, the implementation of which will improve the process of formation and implementation of state policy in the field of the rural population employment in Ukraine, will optimize approaches to the development of programs to provide of the rural population employment. Tabl.: 4. Figs.: 1. Refs.: 22.