Assessing the impact of age, gender, and education level on occupational mobility

Occupational mobility varies unevenly across demographic groups, and this unevenness is rarely the subject of separate analysis. This study examines the impact of age, gender, and education level on the population’s propensity to change professions and positions. Surveys conducted in 2026 show that 26–28 percent of Russians under 35 have changed professions, compared to only 20 percent of those over 45. Those with secondary vocational education are more likely to retrain than those with higher education. The aim of this study is to assess how each of the three demographic factors, independently and in combination, determines occupational mobility. The empirical base is data from the Russian Longitudinal Monitoring Survey (LMS) of the HSE and labor market surveys from 2016 to 2026. It was shown that men have a higher chance of finding a job and advancing within a company than women, and higher education increases employment chances by almost two and a half times. The impact of education on mobility was found to be heterogeneous across types of mobility — i t is significant for vertical growth and almost insignificant for horizontal occupational change. The novelty of the results lies in the integration of disparate empirical data on three factors into a single comparative picture, taking into account the type of mobility. The results are applicable to the development of employment promotion programs for different demographic groups.