The Ministry of Labour and Social Protection has been discussing the issue of increasing unemployment benefits for several years. In an interview with the TV channel "Belarus 1", the head of the department, Irina Kostevich, spoke about which categories of citizens can count on this in the first place, according to BELTA.
"Currently, we are preparing a draft law to amend the law on employment. We are coming up with an initiative to increase benefits, particularly for the unemployed from areas with a tense labour market situation. The second category is people aged 50+, who find it really difficult to compete," said Irina Kostevich. She added that people over 50 on average look for a job for eleven months. This is a rather long period, the minister believes, so these people need financial support.
Irina Kostevich described the labour market situation in the country as quite stable. "According to the methodology of the International Labour Organisation, the unemployment rate is 3.9%. By international standards, this is a sufficiently low level. If we talk about the employment rate, it is growing and among working-age people it is almost 84%," she clarified.
The number of newly created jobs is also growing. The service sector leads here (it accounts for about 70% of the total number of new jobs). The minister stated an increase in labour demand. By the way, the Ministry of Labour has set a task for the next year to work more closely with employers who have a significant number of vacancies. "Perhaps there will be some specific programmes, packages for recruiting staff for specific enterprises for employment," noted Irina Kostevich.
The interview also touched upon the issue of increasing the retirement age. The minister was asked whether the economic effect of the already implemented increase had been calculated. Irina Kostevich pointed out that raising the retirement age against the backdrop of an ageing population is, first and foremost, an opportunity to maintain the number of working-age people. "This is a stabilisation of the situation with the fund itself (not a reduction in its revenue part) and, of course, a mitigation of the labour shortage in the labour market," the minister explained. Raising the retirement age allows for annual pension increases. "If we talk about 2019, the average pension for November (old-age) was Br446. It increased compared to last year by more than Br50. In percentage terms, the growth rate was over 113%," noted the head of the Ministry of Labour.-0-