Abstract
The purpose of the article on the basis of archival sources and scientific heritage of domestic scientists analyzes the experience of practical activities of state authorities to solve the problem of mass unemployment of the population of the Ukrainian SSR in the 1920s. The research methodology is based on the fundamental principles of historical research: historicism, consistency, objectivity in the selection of facts and documents. Among the special methods used in the study should be called problem-chronological, historical-systemic, historical-typological. The scientific novelty of the article is to reveal the features of state policy and the activities of state authorities to overcome the unemployment of employees through the system of compulsory state social insurance. Conclusions. Having finally seized power in Ukraine, the Bolshevik leadership publicly declared the need to create an effective system of social support for especially vulnerable segments of the population. Of course, declarative slogans did not reflect real intentions and opportunities. Under the conditions of a debilitating civil war and economic devastation, it was quite natural to see a massive increase in the number of unemployed and a drop in the living standards of the population. This was especially exacerbated with the transition to a new economic policy. In the early 1920s a number of legislative initiatives were adopted to mitigate the unemployment situation. It was about the introduction of compulsory unemployment insurance at the state level. Insurance premiums paid by employers and employees were to become the financial basis for the payment of benefits to the unemployed. The implementation of this state policy on the ground relied on labor exchanges. However, excessive bureaucracy and a limited number of such institutions could not sufficiently solve this problem. The lack of funds for material support of the population was particularly acute, so the government was forced to look for alternative options: public works, in-kind assistance or the provision of various benefits. Active industrial construction, which began at the end of the 1920s, led to an increase in the demand for labor. In such conditions, the Party-Soviet leadership took a course to eliminate unemployment by administrative means, not recognizing as unemployed those workers who refused the job offered to them.