Number of unemployed increased by 3.6 times in Bashkiria

According to operational information from the Ministry of Labor of Bashkiria, by the end of May, the number of officially registered unemployed in the republic increased by 3.6 times and reached 67 thousand people.

“The number of registered unemployed is actually growing,” the vice-premier of the republican Government, Minister of Labor and Social Protection of the Population, Lenara Ivanova, stated at a briefing on Wednesday.

The Ministry of Labor believes that the increase in the number of unemployed will continue since, in late May, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced new measures of state support. In particular, to extend the payment of maximum unemployment benefits for another three months.

“The second is that one-third of the registered unemployed today receive a minimum allowance because they are not working for a long time. The minimum amount of benefits increases three times - in our republic to 5175 rubles. The increase in this allowance, in our opinion, will also attract people, because many, because of the small amount, have not done this before. These initiatives will lead to the fact that more people will be able to receive state support. So here it should be perceived not as an increase in unemployment, but as an increase in the number of people who will be able to take advantage of state support,” said the Deputy Prime Minister.

According to the Bashkortostan Statistics Agency, citing data from a sample survey, the number of the workforce aged 15 and older in January-March 2020 amounted to about 1.845 million people in Bashkiria. Of these, almost 1.759 million people, or 95.3% of the workforce, were classified as engaged in economic activity.