ABSTRACT
Soviet spokespersons regard the ending of unemployment in the 1930s as being coterminous with the abolition of the ‘reserve army’ of unemployed labour and the ending of the labour market in the USSR. This is a half-truth. Compared to capitalist market societies, it is the case that wages were not effective in regulating the supply of labour, and the absence of a pool of unemployed made dismissal less effective as a means to discipline labour. The other part of the story is that the ‘planning’ of labour was only partial. At most, about a quarter of entrants to the labour force came from Orgnabor (the department concerned with labour supply)1 and these did not necessarily stay in their first jobs. The vast majority of workers were recruited through informal channels and in practice moved from one job to another. Enterprises attempted to optimize their labour force by persuading valued workers to stay and to attract others from outside. In this more limited sense, a labour market existed and continues to the present day. Imperfections in labour markets and in the planning of labour lead to various types of unemployment which will be discussed after considering how the labour force is placed in jobs.
