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Migration has a significant impact on the shaping of the demographic structure of the territories population, the state of regional and local labour markets. As a rule, rapid change in the working-age population of any territory due to migration processes results in an imbalance in supply and demand on labour markets and a change in the demographic structure of the population. Migration is also to a large extent a reflection of socio-economic processes taking place in the society. Hence, the issues related to the study of migration factors, the direction, intensity and structure of migration flows, and the prediction of their magnitude are becoming topical issues these days.

Mathematical tools are often used to analyze, predict migration processes and assess their consequences, allowing for essentially accurate modelling of migration processes for different territories on the basis of the available statistical data. In recent years, quite a number of scientific papers on modelling internal and external migration flows using mathematical methods have appeared both in Russia and in foreign countries in recent years. Consequently, there has been a need to systematize the currently most commonly used methods and tools applied in migration modelling to form a coherent picture of the main trends and research directions in this field.

The presented review considers the main approaches to migration modelling and the main components of migration modelling methodology, i. e. stages, methods, models and model classification. Their comparative analysis was also conducted and general recommendations on the choice of mathematical tools for modelling were developed. The review contains two sections: migration modelling methods and migration models. The first section describes the main methods used in the model development process — econometric, cellular automata, system-dynamic, probabilistic, balance, optimization and cluster analysis. Based on the analysis of modern domestic and foreign publications on migration, the most common classes of models — regression, agent-based, simulation, optimization, probabilistic, balance, dynamic and combined — were identified and described. The features, advantages and disadvantages of different types of migration process models were considered.

Nowadays the situation of supply-demand imbalances in the professionals’ labor markets causes human capital losses as far as hampers scientific and innovation development. In Russia, supply-demand imbalances in the engineering labor market are associated with deindustrialization processes and manufacturing decline, resulted in a negative public perception of the engineering profession and high rates of graduates not working within the specialty or changing their occupation.

For analysis of the supply-demand imbalances in the engineering labor market, we elaborated a macroeconomic model. The model consists of 14 blocks, including blocks for demand and supply for engineers and technicians, along with the blocks for macroeconomic indicators as industry and service sector output, capital investment. Using this model, we forecasted the perspective supply-demand imbalances in the engineering labor market in a short-term period and examined the parameters of getting supply-demand balance in the medium-term perspective.

The results obtained show that situation of more balanced supply and demand for engineering labor is possible if there is simultaneous increase in the share of investments in fixed assets of manufacturing and relative wages in industry, besides getting to balance is facilitated by a decrease of the share of graduates not working by specialty. It is worth noting that a decrease in the share of graduates not working by specialty may be affected whether by the growth of relative wages in industry and number of vacancies or by the implementation of measures aimed at improving the working conditions of the engineering workforce and increasing the attractiveness of the profession. To summarize, in the case of the simplest scenario, not considering additional measures of working conditions improvement and increasing the attractiveness of the profession, the conditions of supply-demand balance achievement implies slightly lower growth rates of investment in industry than required in scenarios that involve increasing the share of engineers and technicians working in their specialty after graduation. The latter case, where a gradual decrease in the proportion of those who do not work in engineering specialty is expected, requires, probably, higher investment costs for attracting specialists and creating new jobs, as well as additional measures to strengthen the attractiveness of the engineering profession.