Address by Alexander Zhukov:

Good afternoon,

Today, the government is holding its final visiting session of the year to monitor the labour market situation in the regions of the Siberian Federal District. The meeting is primarily intended to assess the labour market situation in 2010 around the country, including in the Siberian Federal District, and to discuss various objectives that need to be accomplished under regional programmes, which call for additional measures to ease the pressure on regional labour markets in 2011.

First of all, I would like to draw your attention to the main positive trends on the labour market this year.

Economic growth helps stabilise the labour market and raises the incomes of the economically active population. This includes increases in nominal and real wages at businesses in every economic category. For instance, the average monthly nominal wage increased by 11.7% in January-September 2010 compared to the same period in 2009, with real wages increasing by 5% compared to the same period in 2009.

The number of employed people increased from 67.7 million in early 2010 to 71.2 million nationwide this past August. An insignificant seasonal decline was recorded in September.

The total number of unemployed persons fell by 1.8 million, from 6.8 million (9.2% of the economically active population) in January to 5 million (6.6% of the economically active population)­ in September over the same period. In terms of general unemployment, we have returned to pre-crisis October 2008 rates. At the same time, unemployment rates have increased somewhat in ten regions of the Russian Federation during the same period.

In July-September 2010, total unemployment rates in the Siberian Federal District exceeded nationwide levels (7.6% as compared to 6.6%). The highest unemployment rates were recorded in the Republic of Tuva (21.3%), the Republic of Altai (11.5%) and the Trans-Baikal Territory (10.9%). At the same time, 4.9% and 5.3% unemployment rates were recorded in the Tomsk Region and the Krasnoyarsk Territory, respectively. This is less than the nationwide average.

The number of the registered unemployed has continued to decline since late February. As of November 10, 2010, their number declined by over 750,000 people, from 2,286,000 to 1,527,000. The number of registered unemployed persons fell in the absolute majority of regions around the country. The November 3-10 monitoring survey revealed that the number of unemployed persons increased somewhat, by 2,358, due to seasonal factors that occur each fall.

In the past ten months, registered unemployment rates in the Siberian Federal District declined from 3.1% to 2.1% of the economically active population. As of November 3, the number of unemployed persons registered with employment agencies in the Siberian Federal District fell by 33%, or by 102,700, compared with early 2010, totaling 210,600 people. Nevertheless, we should pay serious attention to the high rates of registered unemployment in regions of the federal district, such as the Republic of Tuva (5%), the Republic of Altai and the Altai Territory (3%).

Due to declining unemployment levels and rising workforce demand, the number of vacancies totaled 1,167,000 in late October. The number of officially unemployed persons per vacancy has fallen from 3.1 points to 1.5 points.

The number of employers' vacancies submitted to employment agencies of the Siberian Federal District has increased by over 70,000 since early 2010. The number of unemployed per vacancy is slightly higher than the national average, declining from four to 1.7 since early 2010. At the same time, it should be noted that the labour market is strained in the Trans-Baikal Territory where the number of unemployed per vacancy is 6.9, as well as in the Altai Territory (4.1) and the Republic of Tuva (3.5).

The total number of part-time employees, including those who are idle due to a decision by management, those with a reduced working day or week, and those on administrative leave, has fallen considerably since the end of February – by over a million people – and now totals 592,000. But it should be noted that the number of part-time workers is declining in every category.

The ratio between redundancies and new hires has improved since 2010. As of January-September 2010, 24.7% more employees were hired compared to the same period of 2009. The number of redundancies fell by 6.3%.

As of September 2010, the number of redundancies (69,900) in the Siberian Federal District somewhat exceeded the number of new hires (68,400).

Colleagues,

Budget allocations totalling 39.5 billion roubles were set aside to implement additional measures to support the labour market in 2010.

Subsidies from the federal budget to finance the regional programmes were provided to all constituent entities of the Russian Federation. The subsidies total 38.4 billion roubles, which is 99.6% of the total federal funding of 38.5 billion roubles planned for these programmes.

Considering the positive impact of the regional programmes on the labour market in 2009 and 2010, they will be extended through 2011.

We already discussed the details regarding the development of the measures in these programmes in 2011 at our last meeting, a video conference in September. I would like to remind you that in 2011 the focus of these measures will be significantly different, for instance:

Only employees of strategic and backbone enterprises as well as unemployed citizens registered with employment agencies in single industry towns will be hired for public and temporary work. The number of participants will reach some 200,000 people, with a total of 3.6 billion roubles in federal funding allocated for this purpose;

Only employees of organisations that have submitted development and modernisation programmes, as well as women working in hazardous and difficult conditions, will be able to take part in retraining programmes and courses for those employees in risk of losing their jobs. The number of participants will reach 100,300 people, with a total of 2.7 billion roubles in federal funding allocated for this purpose;

Over 70% of the graduates of education institutions who are at risk of not finding a job will participate in the internship courses. The number of participants will reach 57,000 graduates, and total federal funding for this purpose has been estimated at 2.7 billion roubles;

106,000 people will be involved in measures to promote self-employment of unemployed citizens and creating new jobs for other unemployed citizens; an estimated 10.3 billion roubles in federal funding will be needed for this;

Unemployed citizens who are raising disabled children and parents with many children will be able to take part in measures to find employment for people with disabilities. As this calls for installing special equipment at workplaces to tend to the needs of handicapped people, the amount of compensation to the employer will be increased from 30,000 to 50,000 roubles per workplace. Some 13,800 people will take part in these measures; total federal funding needed has been estimated at 437.6 million roubles;

Only citizens who live in the adjacent (border) areas will be moved to other places, with no dwelling services provided (commuting). The number of participants will reach 8,000 people, with total federal funding estimated at 448 million roubles.

In total, some 900,000 people will participate in the regional employment programmes in 2011; in 2009, that number was 2.8 million people, and 1.5 million in 2010. Federal funding for these programmes is estimated at 27.8 billion roubles, compared to 43.7 billion roubles in 2009 and 39.5 billion roubles in 2010. These federal allocations have been stipulated in the draft federal budget for 2011 and the planning period of 2012-2013.

Colleagues,

The trends in the labour market in the regions of the Siberian Federal District generally match the trends across Russia. That being said, I would like to draw your attention to several facts.

The problem of underemployment and the risk of the redundancies is extremely acute in the Siberian Federal District. Currently (as of November 10, 2010) the largest amount of underemployment and redundancies was observed in the Trans-Baikal Territory (46,200 and 2,300 people, respectively), the Altai Territory (14,400 and 5,200 people), the Omsk Region (11,100 people and 5,500 people), and the Krasnoyarsk Territory (10,400 people and 6,700 people).

In 2010, record unemployment level was recorded in the Republic of Tuva – the maximum rate stood at 7.7% in April 2010. The region's economy mostly focuses on agriculture. The anti-crisis measures to ease the situation on the labour market in the Republic of Tuva were not very effective, as the measures were primarily focused on supporting employees of industrial enterprises. The republic must devote more attention to promoting self-employment and small enterprises, which would help reduce rural unemployment significantly.

Since the region is dominated by single industry towns (second only to the Moscow Region), during the downturn the highly industrialized Kemerovo Region had bigger employment problems than its neighbours with diversified economies – the Krasnoyarsk Territory, and the Irkutsk, Omsk, Tomsk and Novosibirsk regions. Among these constituent entities of the Siberian Federal District, the Kemerovo Region has had the highest level of registered unemployment at 2.5% as of early November 2010.

I ask you to pay special attention to these issues when developing the regional programmes for 2011.