Ukraine forecasts more than 2 million to be unemployed by late 2015
KYIV. April 9 (Interfax) - The head of the Ukrainian National Service for Employment, Yaroslav Kashuba, forecasts that the country's unemployment rate will soar to 11.5% before the end of 2015.
"Whereas today our unemployment rate is 9.3%, before the end of this year it will rise to 11.5%. I cannot speak in terms of numbers here, because that is a ratio to the working-age population, but overall we are talking about more than two million people," Kashuba told a press conference in Kyiv on Thursday.
According to the latest figures from the National Statistic Service, in 2014 the number of employed people in Ukraine, aged between 15 and 70, fell by 1.2 million to 18.1 million, in comparison with 2013.
In February 2015 the number of insured people covered by the mandatory state social insurance dropped by 1.5 million to 10.4 million, in comparison with February 2014, he said.