Transcript:

Ladies and gentlemen,

We are holding an on-site meeting today on monitoring the regional labour market situation in Russia's Northwestern Federal District.

Our goal today is to assess the situation on the national labour market and on the Northwestern market, and to discuss what should be done to promote employment reduce unemployment in the region.

The general economic recovery in the country in addition to the combined efforts of the federal and regional governments have helped improve the labour market situation, which is reflected in the upward trends shown by the key labour market indicators in 2011.

The total number of jobless in Russia has decreased by 800,000 since the beginning of this year (from 5.8 million in January to 5.0 million in July), and the unemployment rate was down from 7.8% to 6.5% of the employable population. Unemployment in Russia is down to the pre-crisis level of 5.0 million people (6.6% in October 2008).

On the other hand, although the total number of unemployed people and the unemployment level has been declining in the Northwestern Federal District (by 88,000 people or 1.2%), in July, seven of the ten regions that make up this district reported unemployment rates above the national average (6.5%).

The highest unemployment levels were registered in the Republic of Karelia, at 10.4%, and the Pskov Region, at 9.3%.

The number of people officially registered with employment authorities across the country fell from 1.609 million in January to 1.384 million in July (a reduction of 225,000), while the registered unemployment rate was down from 2.1% to 1.8% of the employable workforce.

As of August 24, there were 1.347 million people registered as unemployed in Russia.

In the Northwestern Federal District, the number of registered unemployed individuals also fell from 114,500 in January to 95,800 in July, a reduction of more than 18,700 people.

The rate of registered unemployment has decreased from 1.5% to 1.3% over the period specified. However, it remained above the national average of 1.8% in some of the regions that make up this district – in Karelia (2.3%), the Vologda and Arkhangelsk Regions (2.0%), the Komi Republic and the Kaliningrad Region (1.9%).

The number of people working part-time fell from 487,000 to 236,000 as of August 1, a reduction of 250,000, as most local companies return to their pre-crisis mode of operation.

Part-time employment has also been reduced by more than 9,200 jobs since early this year in nearly every region of the Northwestern Federal District, with the exception of Komi and the Kaliningrad Region.

I would like to inform you that the government has instructed the Ministry of Industry and Trade, along with regional executive bodies, to analyse the causes behind this situation. Their instructions are to determine why a number of large industrial companies employ their workers only part-time, and to draft proposals before September 1 on how to improve this situation.

Labour market tension has been on a steady decline, as indicated by the unemployment/vacancy ratio which dropped from 1.8 registered unemployed individuals per job opening in January, to 1.0 in August, due to decreasing unemployment and a growing demand for workers: the number of available vacancies grew by 482,000 to 1.521 million between January and July.

This trend is the result of an increase in the number of temporary jobs available, as well as new jobs created by small businesses.

Since the beginning of this year, the number of vacancies that employers reported to regional employment agencies in the Northwestern Federal District increased by 47,400 (38.9%) to 169,000 in July.

At the same time, although there was an overall decrease in the unemployment/vacancy ratio in the Northwestern Federal District, from 1.3 in January to 0.7, it remained above the national average in some regions: 1.7 in Karelia, 1.3 in the Kaliningrad Region, 1.2 in the Murmansk Region and 1.1 in the Pskov Region.

All regions in Russia are implementing employment stimulation programmes which include additional measures aimed at reducing tension on the labour market. These programmes, which involve more than 450,000 people, provide for spending a total of 19.8 billion roubles, with federal subsidies accounting for 18.4 billion roubles of that amount (including 2.7 billion roubles that was unused in 2010).

A total of 15.5 billion roubles in federal subsidies allocated for financing the first and second stages of regional employment programmes has been transferred to all Russian regions.

Colleagues,

I would like to draw your attention to the fact that in 2011, most of the initiatives under the regional programmes aimed at easing labour market tension in the Northwestern Federal District (with the exception of organising community work) involved just over half of the people they planned to reach.

St Petersburg, the Leningrad and Pskov Regions and Karelia have reported very poor progress on these initiatives (which reached less than 20% of the number of people they intended to help).

Retraining programmes for women in difficult or hazardous jobs have not even begun in Karelia, the Arkhangelsk Region and St Petersburg. In the Murmansk Region, only 8% of the intended number of participants have been involved in these programmes; this figure is 9% in the Vologda Region and 13% in the Leningrad Region.

I ask the regional governors to focus even harder on the planned measures to encourage self-employment and start-up of new businesses by unemployed Russians, which, in turn, should create more jobs.

The regional programmes are intended for this kind of support to be provided to 8,100 unemployed individuals. Agreements have been signed with 5,700 people who wish to participate in the programme. Ultimately, only 4,079 people (about 50% of the planned amount) have actually started new businesses.

I ask the regional governments to take steps to accelerate the implementation of this initiative, which has proved very effective to stimulate regional employment in previous years.

I also ask the regional governments to help coordinate small business support programmes, regional programmes aimed at reducing labour market tension by encouraging self-employment, programmes supporting initiatives by unemployed people to start new agribusinesses, science and research SME support initiatives and other SME support policies.

It is also essential to intensify the organisation of retraining and trainee placement programmes for people at risk of being let go, which would require enlisting mentors.

There are 41 single-industry towns in the Northwestern Federal District, concentrated in Karelia, Komi, the Arkhangelsk, Vologda, Leningrad, Murmansk and Novgorod Regions.

The labour markets in most of those towns are gradually stabilising. Overall, the number of residents there who are registered with local employment agencies has gone down from 12,500 in January to 9,800 as of July 1.

The registered unemployment rate in 19 of these towns did not exceed the country's average of 1.8% as of August 1.

At the same time, this figure remained above the national average in 22 single-industry towns; including four towns where it is more than double the average rate.

The highest registered unemployment rate was seen in the town of Onega and Yasny village in the Arkhangelsk Region, as well as in Kondopoga and Pudozh in Karelia.

The unemployment/vacancy ratio exceeded the average as of August 1 in 24 single-industry towns.

I ask the regional governments to concentrate on employment in single-industry towns, and to draft additional policies to create more jobs in all places where the labour market tension is high, including single-industry towns.

A few words about our immediate plans:

There are going to be changes to federal laws that delineate authority between state agencies in order to achieve more effective cooperation between these agencies, as well as an improved state administration in the area of employment.

A bill is currently in the works clarifying some of the clauses in the current laws delineating powers between federal and regional executive bodies and giving more authority to regional governments in the area of employment.

In particular, the payment of social benefits to unemployed Russians will be entrusted to regional authorities.

Also, employment stimulation policies and programmes, as well as the maintenance and operation of regional executive bodies and state employment agencies will be now financed by regional governments.

The bill also gives the federal government the authority to draft and implement additional policies aimed at easing tension on the regional labour markets, as well as providing specialised jobs for people with disabilities, parents of children with disabilities, and parents of large families (those with three or more children).

Considering the encouraging trends which are a result of the additional policies aimed at easing labour market tensions, the following steps are planed for 2012-2014:

- providing employment to currently unemployed people with disabilities, parents of children with disabilities, and parents of large families (those with three or more children) in all constituent regions of Russia

- retraining and trainee placement programmes at Russian and foreign educational institutions for people living in regions that qualify as tense labour markets and single-industry towns, especially for workers at risk of being dismissed

- testing and evaluation of Russians looking for jobs who wish to obtain a professional qualification certificate

- encouraging employers who have job openings to hire unemployed people living in regions that qualify as tense labour markets.