LABOR MARKET OF SINGLE-INDUSTRY CITIES: STATISTICAL ANALYSIS OF THE STATE AND TRENDS

The labor market of single-industry towns is characterized by a number of features. The need of the study is explained by the high degree of dependence level of socio-economic development of territories of this type on changes in its state. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to conduct a statistical analysis of the state and trends characteristic of the labor market of single-industry towns in emerging market countries as exemplified by single-industry towns in the Chelyabinsk region of the Russian Federation. In the process of achieving the research goal, the variety of approaches for interpretation of the concept of “single-industry town” was systematized; the system of criteria reflecting the economic content of the concept of "single-industry town" was analyzed taking into account, on the one hand, the change in their role in the system of urban settlement and, on the other hand, the specific conditions and challenges of urban development in countries with emerging markets. The identified criteria for statistical analysis of the labor market single-industry towns were tested. The statistical analysis of the labor market of single-industry towns revealed a number of its inherent features and trends: a rapid decline in the resident population; an increased level of unemployment compared to the average conditions of the regional labor market and its inevitable growth in the event of modernization of production processes at a city-forming enterprise; narrow production specialization of the labor force, determined by the needs of the key buyer the town-forming enterprise.


Introduction
Modern realities demonstrate the increasing significance of single-industry towns (hereinafter referred to as the monotowns) in the development of the national urban systems of countries with emerging markets, which is due to the following factors: firstly, a significant number of territories of the indicated type, amounting to 2400 units or 2.0% of the total number of cities in the world today (Yakimov, 2009); secondly, the intensification of polarization processes in the developed territorial space; thirdly, monotowns undertake some functions of capital cities, become drivers of the development of the territories surrounding them.

Problem Statement
The research problem of state and tendencies of the labor market in monotowns has a special significance for countries with emerging markets, which are characterized by serious imbalances in the development of settlement systems due to the influence of institutional transformations, uneven processes of modernization of national socio-economic systems and irrational decisions in the field of economic policy.

Research Questions
Monotowns within the Chelyabinsk region of the Russian Federation serve as the research area. It should be noted that at the moment on the Chelyabinsk region territory, the status of a monotown has 16 municipalities that have concentrated more than 30.0 % of the population of the total population of the region (table 1). The monotowns of the Chelyabinsk region are quite differentiated by the level of socioeconomic development, 7 of them are classified as the first category of single-profile municipalities with the most difficult socio-economic situation, 5 -single-industry municipalities with risks of socioeconomic situation decline, and only 4-single-industry municipalities with a stable economic situation.

Purpose of the Study
The purpose of the study is a statistical analysis of state and tendencies specific to the labor market of monotowns in countries with emerging markets. This purpose defines the objectives of the study: to systematize approaches to the interpretation of the concept of "single-industry town/ monotown", to examine a system of criteria that reflect the economic content of the concept of "monotown" and taking into account, on the one hand, a change in their role in the urban settlement system, on the other hand, specific conditions and challenges of urban development in countries with developed emerging markets; to test the identified criteria for a statistical analysis of the labor market in monotowns.

Research Methods
The research is based on the following methodological principles.
Firstly, the change in approaches to the definition of a "monotown" is due to external economic, social, and political shocks and due to accumulation of a certain critical mass of changes in the internal environment. This process is neither linear nor continuous. In emerging market countries, the role of external shocks in the development of urban settlement systems is significantly higher than in developed market economies.
Secondly, there is the need for a comprehensive approach to the characterization of the concept of "monotown". In this approach, it is necessary to use a set of criteria characterizing the specifics of the internal environment, especially the relations with the external environment, constraints, and challenges emerging within the country-specific socio-economic, political system.
Thirdly, the analysis of the state and tendencies specific to the labor market of monotowns in a particular country should be carried out using methods of institutional-evolutionary analysis, which allows identifying what changes are caused by stable institutional factors in the historical perspective. On the other hand, the use of methods of institutional-evolutionary analysis allows characterizing the extent to which the vector of identified changes is relevant to the strategic challenges facing cities in emerging markets.

Findings
The results of the study of the variety of definitions of the category "monotown", offered by the Russian researchers identified the lack of a single fundamental approach to the interpretation of the notion.
According to the most known approach of "monotowns", the identity of monotown is revealed using numerical characteristics that at first glance seem formal, but are shown to be significant indicators  Yakimov (2009), and others. In the definitions of the most influential representatives of the quantitative approach, the following are suggested as key criteria for determining monotowns: -the part of the town-forming enterprise in the gross territorial product/industrial output of all municipal enterprises; -the part of employment in the town-forming enterprise in the total employment of the economically active population of the territory; -the part of tax revenues received from the town-forming enterprise in the total tax revenue of the municipal budget.
Despite the prevalence of a quantitative approach to the study of the development of monotowns, it still has some disadvantages. The main disadvantage is the difficulty of establishing multi-purpose absolute thresholds for quantitative criteria for global or national scales and long time intervals.
The representatives of the qualitative approach to the definition of "monotown" appeal to the content of the functions performed by this type of municipality. Lappo (2006), Leksin and Shvetsov (2000), Maslova (2007Maslova ( , 2009), Miklyaeva (2007), Prosvirin (2010) consider the monocentric nature of the economy and the performance of a certain set of vital functions for the development of surrounding territories -material and technical support, industrial production to be the key criterion for classifying a city as a "monotown".
The qualitative and quantitative criteria for classifying a town as "monotown", proposed by Russian researchers, are systematized in Table 2. Table 2. Qualitative and quantitative criteria for classifying a town as "monotown" Qualitative criteria Quantitative criteria Presence of one enterprise / group of interconnected enterprises that determines the socio-economic processes in the municipality Part of the town-forming enterprise in the gross territorial product / industrial output of all enterprises of the municipality Low level of diversification of the spheres of employment of the town population Part of employment at the town-forming enterprise in the total employment of the economically active population of the territory Significant remoteness of the town from other, larger municipalities Part of tax revenues from the town-forming enterprise in the total tax revenues of the budget of the municipality Low level of infrastructure development providing the city's connection with the outside world Presence of one enterprise / group of interconnected enterprises, which is the owner of the objects of the social and communal sphere or engineering infrastructure, serving part of the population of the city The synthesis of the considered approaches to the disclosure of the essence of "monotowns" is the third approach, which indicates the need for their complex characteristics-simultaneously through clearer quantitative and qualitative criteria. This approach is shared by the legislative authorities of the Russian Federation, defining a single-industry city as a municipality that meets the following criteria simultaneously: https://doi.org/10.15405/epsbs.2021.11.220 Corresponding Author: Anastasiia Grigorevna Vasileva Selection and peer-review under  For the analyzed period, the resident population of monotowns of the Chelyabinsk region decreased by 11.6 thousand people or 1.0%, which is shown in table 3. The decrease in the resident population of monotowns of the Chelyabinsk region is due to both natural decline and negative migration processes, associated with modern processes of managing production activities at town-forming enterprises, the activation of procedures for the release of labour as a result of structural and technological changes resulting in the termination of employment at the initiative of the employer. It is curious that the negative trend is minimally expressed, and sometimes even inversely, in monotowns of the second category -mono-profile municipalities, in which there are risks of worsening socio-economic conditions (Miass, Chebarkul), and the third category -mono-profile municipalities with a stable economic situation (Ozersk, Snezhinsk, Trekhgorny). The values of the following criterion, which allows revealing the features of the labour market in It should be emphasized that the gradual transition of monotowns (mainly the first category, i.e. single-industry municipalities with the most difficult socio-economic situation -Asha, Bakal, Karabash, Minyar, Nyazepetrovsk) from purely industrial specialization to diversification, which is logical in the conditions of the aspiration of a monoprofile city to fulfil an integrative role. A specific feature of the labour market in monotowns is a sharp quantitative and qualitative imbalance between supply and demand of labour, and as a result, an increased level of unemployment compared to the average conditions of the regional labour market is also characteristic of the study site.
An exception is single-industry cities in the Chelyabinsk region of the Russian Federation, categorized as 3-mono-profile municipalities with a stable economic situation -Magnitogorsk, Snezhinsk, and Trekhgorny. The number of unemployed citizens registered in employment service bodies as a percentage of the number of the working age population, in the city of Magnitogorsk it is 0.7%, the city of Snezhinsk -0.6%, the city of Trekhgorny -0.5% against the regional value -0.8%.

Conclusion
Thus, in the variety of fundamental concepts for classifying towns, there are still no single, universal criteria that reveal the essence of "monotowns". In the parameters recommended by the researchers, there are quite often discrepancies in their threshold values, there is a significant scatter in absolute indicators. However, a statistical analysis of the labour market in monotowns, based on a system of existing criteria and an attempt to systematize its features make it possible to note: a rapid decline in the number of resident population; increased unemployment compared with the average conditions of the regional labour market and its inevitable growth in the case of modernization of production processes at the town-forming enterprise; narrow production specialization of labour, determined by the needs of the key buyer, i.e. the town-forming enterprise.