MOSCOW, February 12. /TASS/. Certain Russian enterprises affected by the economic downturn in the country last year, may start slashing jobs in 2016, Deputy Economic Development Minister Oleg Fomichev said on Friday.
"We’re facing risks due to last year’s decline in production in the majority of sectors though no employees were released as enterprises expected the situation to improve but there hasn’t been much of improvement. We think most enterprises may simply change their strategy and start releasing employees," he said, adding that for this very reason a budget reserve is needed to offset the risks.
Earlier Fomichev said Russia didn’t face a serious unemployment rise in 2015 while this year employment risks are much higher. "We realize that this year risks are high. Whereas last year there was no serious unemployment increase this year risks are obviously higher," he said.
According to Fomichev, the plan is to further implement regional employment programs in 2016. "Currently we’re discussing the scale of this aid," he said.
According to the data provided by Russia’s state statistics service Rosstat, the number of unemployed in Russia stood at 4.264 mln people (accounting for 5.8% of economically active population), a 7.4% increase compared with 2014.
The Economic Development Ministry expects Russia’s unemployment to increase to 6.3% in 2016.