Reshetnikov sees risks of unemployment growth in Russia from current minimal levels

MOSCOW. June 2 (Interfax) - The Russian Economic Development Ministry sees risks of unemployment growth from current lows on the back of falling demand, Economic Development Minister Maxim Reshetnikov said at a briefing on Thursday.

"The situation on the labor market is stable for now: we have reached a historic low of almost 4% in terms of unemployment there. But this situation should not deceive us," he said.

"If we have a prolonged demand crisis, businesses will sooner or later have to - right now they are just taking losses waiting for a readjustment, waiting for demand to recover - but sooner or later it could lead to a reduction in employment. According to leading indicators, we see that there are risks here," the minister said.

"We are following them closely, so we say that it is very important to us, of course, that this demand [increases] - consumer lending, mortgages, lending to businesses, budget expenditures. We are doing our best here to ensure that the money goes to the economy, for the economy to be relaunched," Reshetnikov said.

Unemployment in Russia in April 2022 decreased to 4%, a new historical minimum for the period of observations since 1991, Rosstat said yesterday. The total number of unemployed in Russia in April 2022 was 3.005 million people, which is 73,000 lower than in March 2022.

The previous historical low, 4.1%, was reached in February 2022 and held through March. The previous unemployment minimum was 4.3%, which was logged in August 2019, was reached again last September and held until December 2021 inclusive. In January of this year, unemployment in Russia rose to 4.4%