Page 37 - RusRPTSept20

4.5 Labour and income
4.5.1 Labour market, unemployment dynamics
The slowdown has hit employment with Russia’s unemployment rate rising some 2pp in recent months to 6.3% in July – its highest level in almost a decade. Unemployment was last over 6% in 2011.
Anecdotal evidence suggests widespread wage cuts and enforced holidays as companies struggle to make ends meet, but avoid entirely sacking staff where possible.
4.5.2 Income dynamics
One bright spot was the dynamic of real wages, which in June grew by 0.6% y/y and by an impressive 2.9% y/y in 1H20 – but this data covers only large and midsize companies and therefore omits the sectors that were most heavily hit by the crisis, like SMEs, said BSC Global Markets chief economist Vladimir Tikhomirov.
The recovery of real wages has been helped by the low inflation despite the cutting of interest rates. In June real wages grew by 0.6% y/y and by an impressive 2.9% y/y in 1H20.
New data from Rosstat confirms what everyone’s suspected since the beginning of the pandemic: entrepreneurs are suffering greatly from COVID.
Rosstat’s income statistics, which break down income by sources, show that earnings from sole proprietorships almost halved in the second quarter of 2020. They now comprise just 3.5% of the Russian population’s total incomes. Yet COVID is just the latest blow in a decade-long decline of entrepreneurial
37 RUSSIA Country Report September 2020 www.intellinews.com