“We have been witnessing a general decline in unemployment rates since the end of March. This is a seasonal factor, as temporary farming vacancies open in the second quarter. We are also witnessing a growth of the demand for workforce. The employment databank has 2.022 million vacancies. This is twice more than the number of unemployed citizens. So, the labor market stringency index is 0.5,” Svetlana Nechayeva said.
The unemployment situation is the worst in Russian Federation constituents of the North Caucasian Federal District. The Chechen Republic has the highest registered unemployment rate (24.9%) and the labor market stringency is 127 jobless people per vacancy.
Svetlana Nechayeva also told the press briefing that the ministry positively evaluated the fulfillment of the presidential decrees regarding equipment of workplaces for persons with disabilities and reminded journalists that Russia shall create 71,000 workplaces for persons with disabilities from 2001 through 2015.
“Constituents of the Russian Federation have resources for fulfilling the commitment of creating workplaces for persons with disabilities by the end of 2015. We are monthly monitoring this work and problems occurring in its course,” Svetlana Nechayeva said.
In her words, the number of workplaces created for persons with disabilities nearly doubled since last year; more than 2,000 workplaces of the sort were created in 2013.
“Creation of workplaces for persons with disabilities will end in 2015. We have proposed to increase the number of such workplaces significantly in 2016-2018 by 17,000 per year after 2016,” she said,
The department director also said that a law drafted by the Russian Labor and Social Protection Ministry was submitted to the State Duma in late April to allow regional authorities to set quotas for recruitment of persons with disabilities at organizing employing from 35 to 100 persons at no more than 3% of the total staff. According to preliminary estimates, that will create jobs for 300,000 persons with disabilities or so.