The registered unemployment rate in Belarus decreased to 0.6% as of June 1.

On June 11, Minsk /Elena Prus - BELTA/. As of June 1, this year, the registered unemployment rate in Belarus stood at 0.6% of the economically active population. In May, this figure decreased by 0.1 percentage points, Nikolai Kokhonov, Head of the Employment Policy Department of the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection, informed BELTA correspondent. Incidentally, as of June 1 last year, this indicator was 0.7%. In the current year, for several months, registered unemployment also remained at the level of 0.7% (since February 1, 2012). According to statistical data, in May of this year, unemployment remained unchanged in most regions of the country: it stayed at 0.8% in the Brest, Grodno, and Vitebsk regions, 0.7% in the Mogilev region, and 0.6% in the Minsk region. It decreased by 0.1 percentage points in the Gomel region (to 0.9%) and in Minsk (to 0.2%). "As predicted, the situation in the republic's labour market is stable and does not cause concern," said the source. "The situation is characterised by an increase in the number of vacancies and a decrease in registrations as unemployed," said Nikolai Kokhonov. "Since spring, there has been a seasonal revival in the republic's labour market: employers' demand for labour is growing, which means employment opportunities are expanding." However, the ministry representative admitted that vacancies in the state employment service database (based on employer requests) are not always attractive in terms of remuneration. As of June 1, 29.7 thousand people were registered as unemployed in Belarus with labour, employment, and social protection bodies – a 5.1% decrease compared to June 1, 2011. In May, the number of registered unemployed decreased by 0.9 thousand people (in April – by 0.4 thousand). Regarding the registration of unemployed people, in January-May, 78.9 thousand people received unemployed status – a 3% decrease compared to January-May of last year. Nikolai Kokhonov believes that special attention should be paid to career guidance for youth: "The economy needs professional skilled workers, and the demand for qualified labour is growing. Therefore, young people should plan their future based, among other things, on the real needs of the labour market and an unbiased assessment of their knowledge. It is necessary to strive to obtain a specialty that is potentially in demand by employers."

According to operational data, for January-May of the current year, the number of applications to the state employment service for employment assistance decreased by 2.9% compared to the same period last year, to 117.8 thousand, and the number of people in need of employment decreased by 5.8% (163.7 thousand people, including 107.1 thousand unemployed). The number of employed people also decreased by 2.5% (in January-May 2012, 75 thousand people found employment with the assistance of labour, employment and social protection bodies, including 54.4 thousand unemployed). As previously reported by BELTA, the Council of Ministers has approved the State Programme for Employment Assistance of the Population of the Republic of Belarus for 2012. As a result of the implementation of the state programme measures by the end of the current year, the registered unemployment rate will not exceed 1.5% of the economically active population. Key objectives include maintaining a stable employment situation; integrating target population groups in need of social support into the labour sphere; improving the system of training and retraining of personnel in accordance with the needs of economic development; and providing information, vocational guidance, and methodological support for population employment. Furthermore, the achievement of these objectives will be carried out not only through traditional measures that have proven effective in practice (assisting employers in creating jobs, helping the unemployed to become self-employed, vocational training for the unemployed, adapting disabled people to work, relocation to new places of work and residence), but also by incorporating new approaches. Among the programme's priorities are improving labour market monitoring and assisting employers in the structural transformation of the economy. The programme is financed by the Social Protection Fund of the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection, including through subsidies transferred to the budgets of the regions and Minsk. Almost Br226 billion will be allocated for the implementation of the state programme measures in 2012.

BELTA