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(non-banking) lending to buyers,” Kommersant suggests, noting that this trend should become clearer in 2023.
4.5 Labour and income
4.5.1 Labour market, unemployment dynamics
Russia’s unemployment hits record low of 3.5% in February
Unemployment in Russia last year fell to a record low of 3.7%, Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin proudly told parliament on March 25. Officials love to brag about unemployment stats and the government insists that the labour market is stable – the Economic Development Ministry goes so far as to say “favourable” – despite the war in Ukraine, mobilisation and a mass exodus from Russia.
But the flip side is an unprecedented labour shortage. In the last three months of 2022, there were 2.5 vacancies for every unemployed person in Russia, the highest ratio since 2005, according to calculations by analysts at the FinExpertiza auditing and consultancy network. That trend has continued into this year.
Every second business faced staff shortages last year, according to Central Bank calculations. Half that group was already experiencing difficulties before the war, while a quarter said that the problem was directly connected with a shortage of suitable candidates. The ratio of vacancies per jobseeker increased over the course of 2022 from 2.1 in the first quarter to 2.5 in the last quarter. The biggest staff shortages affected male-dominated industries such as mechanical engineering, metallurgy, construction and transport.
In December 2022, out of 2.78mn unemployed (according to ILO methodology) aged 15 years and over, 19.1% are young people under the age of 25, that is, a little more than 530 thousand people. Comparing with December 2021, a certain positive trend can be noted, as there were almost 670 thousand young people in this category. The share of the number of unemployed over the age of 50 in December 2022 in the total structure is 18.8%, or just over 520 thousand people. The average age of the unemployed is 36.8 years.
It took an average of 5.9 months to find a job in December 2022, with 16.3% of the unemployed looking for work for 12 months or more. But the majority of the unemployed were looking for work from one to three months - 29.2%. In rural areas, employment is more difficult than in the city - in a state of stagnant unemployment, that is, looking for work for more than a year, there were 22.4% of rural unemployed, and urban - 13.3%.
Unemployment has decreased in almost all regions of the Russian Federation, but at the same time, the range of unemployment rates still differs significantly
80 RUSSIA Country Report Russia April 2023 www.intellinews.com