Abstract: The study is dedicated to investigation of the issue of employment of the population of the Vyatka Province of the Russian Empire in the 19th century. Analysis of the archive documents, statistical data and periodicals allows specifying the main trends of development of the labor market and the sphere of employment of population of the Vyatka Province in the 19th century among which we have distinguished: the agricultural industry, handicraft and seasonal works, domestic industry, trade and manufacturing. In the study, the comparative research method was used that allows comparing the statistical data obtained. The use of the historical re-enactment method reconstructing the image of the economic development of the Vyatka Province. For objective evaluation of the data obtained the historical retrospection method is used. That peculiar feature of the economic development of the Vyatka Province in the middle of the 19th century was prevalence of the agricultural sector with the poorly pronounced private landholding which determined the trend of formation of demand and offer of the working force. At the labor market, the workers prevailed that dealt with the agricultural production, handicraft works whereas the number of workers employed in the industrial and trade spheres remained to be insignificant. The result of the economic modernization of the second middle of the 19th century was the change of the labor market that was affected by the social and economic policy of the region and the state in general. By the end of the 19th century, the process of overcoming of the economic underdevelopment of the province started by means of enhancement of self-conscious and the entrepreneurial initiative of separate persons: inhabitants of town and counties in general. The workers were gradually involved in the sphere of industrial production, sales of products within and beyond the province boundaries which was promoted by the vigorous activity of the merchantry and petite bourgeoisie that allows enhancing the basis of the population employment. At the end of the 19th century, the new social groups established: the proletariat and bourgeoisie the appearance of which fundamentally changed the situation at the labor market.