MOSCOW, February 7. /TASS/. The withdrawal of Western brands and companies from Russia did not have a major influence on the country’s labor market, Deputy Minister of Economic Development Polina Kryuchkova said in an interview with TASS.

"I should say that there was no exodus in the labor market. In fact, speaking about the total employment in companies that firmly stated their withdrawal, it is, let’s say, large, but not critical for the economy. But once one company leaves another one arrives. True, somewhere the situation is more complicated, in certain sectors, as people leave for related sectors," she explained.

That said, last spring one of the risks of potential economic meltdown was unemployment growth in the second half of the year, Kryuchkova noted. "However, this did not happen. Western companies are leaving, with Russian ones taking their place," she said.

In 2022, unemployment in Russia hit an all-time low of 3.7%, as stated by President Vladimir Putin.

Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova said in early February that the official number of those unemployed in the country totaled 548,000 people, a decrease of 16,000 people since the beginning of the year.