Instead of focusing on the unemployement issue, federal authorities should create a more dynamic labor market, Mikhail Zurabov says.
Photo: Dmitry Dukhanin
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Social Development Ministry Gives Up on the Unemployed
Russian Health and Social Development Minister Mikhail Zurabov suggested shifting focus from unemployment to disbalance on the labor market as he presented a new labor strategy last Friday. He also spoke for granting regions a right to decide on the amount of doles in their areas.
Mikhail Zurabov gave an outline of the labor market strategy for 2007-2010 at a government session on Friday, shifting the focus from unemployment, which is relatively low in Russia, to the market’s disbalance.
Labor force tends to be concentrated in Central Russia, Zurabov highlighted, with an increasing number of people leaving Siberia and the Far East. As much as 371,000 people went to work in the central Russia in the first half of 2006. At the same time, 20 percent of able-bodied population in the North Caucasus is unemployed. Salaries in industries sometimes differ strikingly
The new concept does not aim to support the unemployed. It rather creates a more dynamic labor market, Mikhail Zurabov notes.
The Social Development Minister suggests setting the federal lowest and highest amount of the dole and letting it to regions to determine the exact amount of the dole.
According to the ministry, unemployment in Russia is likely to stay at 6 or 7 percent with labor force better distributed in Russia.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Feb. 19, 2007
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