Russian employment numbers rose, while unpaid leave and part-time work increased

Despite recession, Rosstat’s employment survey finds the number of people employed declined just modestly in 2015 and increased slightly last year. The biggest employment gains were seen in the fields of education, healthcare and social services. The employment rate among people aged 15–72 rose to around 66 %.

The survey finds the good employment trend has been reflected in a significant reduction in the number of people outside the workforce but wanting to work. In addition, the number of unemployed persons, which rose in 2015, dropped tangibly in the final months of 2016. The official unemployment rate was 5.4 % for the October-November period.

In contrast, Rosstat’s monitoring of firms in Russia found that the number of workers on unpaid leave in the survey increased by about 4 % between autumn 2014 and autumn 2016. Their share of all workers on payrolls in the companies covered by the survey, already notable earlier, reached 8.4 % last autumn. About a third of workers on unpaid leave worked in manufacturing businesses. Their share of workers in manufacturing was nearly 17 %. Unpaid leave in industries producing machinery, equipment & transport vehicles affected nearly a fifth of workers in that sector. The number of workers employed part-time in surveyed firms also increased. Part-time workers made up about 2.5 % of all those employed in autumn 2016 and about 3 % in the manufacturing industries.