The transcript of the beginning of the meeting:

Vladimir Putin: Good afternoon.

We have recently met at one of your offices. I have already said and do believe that you have done a great deal, and done it well. But there are also some problems. So let us discuss them.

Yury Gertsy: Mr Putin, the situation on the labour market is following the processes occurring in the country. Generally, it is characterised by a trend when more and more individuals apply to state employment service offices. The number of applications from the jobless, compared with the beginning of this or the end of last year, has increased by 5,000 [a day]. The unemployed today total 2,034,000 people. These are the people who have registered with employment offices and are certain to receive a jobless status and an unemployment benefit.

In parallel, the state employment service and job centres are joining efforts with employers in finding new job vacancies. The bank of vacancies currently holds 800,000 openings. As many as 73% of them are for unskilled labour, and so the emphasis in dealing with jobless applicants is on their vocational training. Vocational training will be made available for those wishing to acquire manual workers' skills.

At the same time, we are implementing a programme to stabilise the situation on the labour market. In line with Resolution No. 1089 of December 31, we have signed 37 agreements with regions of the Russian Federation. We have allocated funds to 21 of them, and they have now initiated the work.

Training is done in jobs that are required at the same plant or factory and meet its interests. Temporary jobs are being created. Efforts are also being made to train the jobless as future businessmen.

We hope that our programme to stabilise the labour situation will create 2 million jobs. These have already been provided to 900,000 people and we expect this programme to cover 2 million people. It will naturally reduce the registered unemployment.

Vladimir Putin: The work of these services also needs to be organised properly.

Yury Gertsy: I can say the following concerning their work. For the past two years we have been rendering services as laid down by administrative regulations. With most of these regulations adopted, we are now optimising the work of the service. Above all, we have improved the quality of information provided to clients turning to us. I am sure you have taken note of stands, models and facilities for independent search, which naturally cut the time required to find a job. Before visiting a counsel, a client is well prepared and knows exactly what questions to ask and which profession to focus on. This reduces the session time.

Less time is also needed to do paperwork granting people the status of unemployed and paying unemployment benefits. We have come to the conclusion that it is necessary to slightly alter our approach to vocational guidance. We hold more group sessions with people who apply to us before they go to vocational counsels to discuss their options, aims and objectives. I think we will be able to cut back the queuing time. In addition, standard software used in the automatic mode when filing a personal case will save about 10 minutes of time on each application.

Vladimir Putin: All right, let us discuss this at length.