Employment and Social Mobility: Evidence from Armenia, Georgia and Ukraine in the 1990s

This article analyses educational trends during the 1990s in the former Soviet Union, their significance for young people from different backgrounds, and the implications for their professional life. Whose educational careers have changed under post-Communism, how and why, and with what effects?The evidence is based on studies of young people aged 20-26. The fieldwork was conducted between 1995 and 1997. In Ukraine, the research was carried out in Lviv and Donetsk. In Georgia, it was carried out in Tbilisi and in Armenia it was split between Yerevan, other large towns, and rural villages. The samples totalled 900 people, 300 per country. In addition, interviews were conducted with young workers, the unemployed, postgraduate students, and military veterans.The samples were designed to ensure comparability between the various locations so that people from different backgrounds and from all the main kinds of secondary schools would be adequately represented. The aim was to see how the various socio-demographic groups were being affected by the macro-changes under post-Communism, how they were experiencing them, and how they were responding to new problems and opportunities