Page 46 - RusRPTDec21

of wages in the economy. Higher employment rates and wages in the leading industries will boost competition in the labour market and the growth of wages in other sectors as well.
Moreover, wages may even rise faster than labour productivity. This might hinder the decrease in inflationary pressure.
In 53 Russian constituent entities, employment indicators have surpassed pre-pandemic levels, but the number of people registered in job centers does not reach 820,000. This was revealed by Anton Kotyakov, the head of the Russian Federation’s Ministry of Labor, during a press conference on Friday, October 29. He pointed out that Rosstat figures show that unemployment is at an all-time low. According to the minister, such an indication has only been observed once in the last ten years, in August 2019, Izvestia reports. “When we look at the statistics from a geographical perspective, we can see that the number of subjects whose employment rates have risen above pre-pandemic levels is increasing as well. “It’s already more than 60% of the areas – 53 themes,” Kotyakov said. The head of the Ministry of Labor also brought up the drop in the number of citizens enrolled in job centers. He stated that the current population is no more than 820 thousand people.
On October 1, 2021 the total arrears of wages amounted to RUB1369.0mn
and in comparison with September 1, 2021 increased by 41.5mn (3.1%). The data are presented by organizations of the observed types of economic activity (not related to small businesses).
46 RUSSIA Country Report December 2021 www.intellinews.com