Structural Adjustment without Mass Unemployment?

Mass unemployment has usually been seen as a necessary accompaniment to major structural adjustment, yet in Russia, amid economic collapse, enormous structural changes have taken place with remarkably low levels of unemployment. Some have seen low unemployment as a sign that Russia has undergone no real changes, but others see it as a sign of a remarkably flexible labour market, with very high rates of labour turnover and extremes of wage differentiation allowing low-wage (and even no-wage) employment to persist in the old industries alongside the growth of a new private sector. On this interpretation, Russia shows to the world, in extreme form, both the benefits and the costs of labour market flexibility.