MOSCOW, April 24 (Itar-Tass) —— The total number of officially registered jobless people in Russia has remained unchanged since the beginning of the year, or 1.7 percent of the country’s able-bodied population, the Russian Ministry of Health and Social Development said in its regular report published on Tuesday.
“In January-March 2012, the total number of unemployed people in Russia dropped by 37,000 and amounted to 4.87 million as of the end of March,” the ministry wrote, adding that the total number of jobless Russians decreased by 480,000 people [ten percent] as compared to the same period of 2011.
“Besides, the total unemployment rate decreased from 6.6 percent in January 2012 to 6.5 percent of the country’s able-bodied population in March,” the report underlined.
The unemployment rate is calculated as the ratio of the total number of jobless people to the total number of able-bodied population.
The lowest unemployment rate was registered in the Central Federal District (3.8 percent), while the biggest rate was in the North Caucasus Federal District (14.9 percent), the ministry wrote.
According to the recent information, the total number of official registered unemployed Russians made up 1.29 million people.
In the period under review, 40 Russian regions reported a hike in the officially registered unemployment rate, as compared to the beginning of the year, the ministry’s press service said, adding that the republics of Tyva, Buryatia, Khakassia, Sakha (Yakutia), Dagestan, and Kabardino-Balkaria were among such territories.
At the same time, the decline in the officially registered unemployment rate was reported from 43 Russian regions, the ministry said, adding that the biggest indicators were reported from the republics of Kalmykia, Ingushetia, Udmurtia, as well as the Ivanovo, Yaroslavl, Volgograd regions and the Stavropol territory.
“Over the first three months of the year, the regional recruiting agencies raised the total number of vacancies by 338,500 ones from 1.16 million vacancies at the beginning of the year,” the ministry said, adding that in April their number reached 1.5 million.
“Since the beginning of the year, the total intensity factor has decreased from 1.2 to 1.0 person per vacancy on average across the country,” the ministry wrote in the report.
“From the beginning of the year, 2.4 million people called in aid of the state services, including 1.1 million of them searching for new jobs, which was 17.1 percent smaller than in the same period of 2011,” the ministry said, adding that 50% of them were employed. Among the best territories for the employment were St. Petersburg, the Ivanovo, Kaliningrad, Lipetsk, Astrakhan, Tula and Yaroslavl regions, as well as the Republic of Karachai-Cherkessia.
However, the Kaluga, Amur, Kirov and Vologda regions, the Republic of Adygeya and the Khabarovsk territory was the worst from the viewpoint of finding a new job.