Stanislau Ivashkevich, Belsat 14 September 2016, 13:58
Unemployment is rising at unprecedented speed. Every working day there appear 650 more jobless persons. This information about Belarus was published by the international ‘Case Research’ research organization.
According to official statistics, the labor market situation is improving. Based on the latest Belsat data, the number of registered unemployed has returned to last year’s level — 1% of the working population.
We asked residents of Minsk if it was consistent with the observations of our fellow citizens.
“Of course, it is very difficult to find a job,” Minsk residents confirmed.
“If you are over 40, you are confronted with the fact that you’re no use to anyone,” say people in the Belarusian capital.
International experts’ picture is totally different to the official picture. According to the ‘Case Research’ center, the situation in the labor market in Belarus is the worst it has been in the last 12 years. Compared to 2009, the number of employed Belarusians has decreased by 300 thousand people. The current number is 4.4 million people.
Democratic Trade Unions Congress President Alyaksandr Yarashuk said: “Since the government is stubbornly unwilling to diagnose the economy, it is not taking appropriate measures to doctor the disease of unemployment.”
International researchers went the opposite way from the National Statistics Committee. They counted not those who claimed to be unemployed, but those who, on the contrary, were formally employed in the economy. And the number of those people in our country is decreasing by at least 650 people every day. Independent trade unions have no doubt that this trend will continue.
“We do not see now the responsible policies to create new jobs,” said Alyaksandr Yarashuk.
Last year, even the official statistics recognized that almost 1.5 million Belarusians of the working age were not formally employed.
