Named regions – leaders in unemployment

Moscow, February 27 – The unemployment rate in the fourth quarter of 2022 in Russia was 3.7%, with the lowest level recorded in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug and Kamchatka Oblast, and the highest in Ingushetia, according to a the News Agency* study.

According to the results of the fourth quarter of 2022, the unemployment rate in the Russian Federation was 3.7%. Unemployment decreased in 76 regions of the Russian Federation, increased in six and remained unchanged in three.

Experts note that in 2022, against the background of curtailing the business of foreign companies, one could expect a significant deterioration in the situation on the labor market, but this did not happen. On the contrary, according to the results of last year, the unemployment rate fell to its lowest historical level. According to the results of the fourth quarter of 2022, the unemployment rate in the country as a whole decreased, according to Rosstat, by 0.6 percentage points compared to the same period of the previous year, which amounted to 3.7%, and the number of unemployed. Person decreased by 0.44 million people.

The study indicates a positive trend in youth unemployment. In December 2022, out of the 2.78 million unemployed (according to ILO methodology) aged 15 and over, 19.1% were young people under the age of 25, i.e. just over 530 thousand people. In December 2021, there were approximately 670,000 in this category.

And the share of unemployed people over 50 years of age in December 2022 in the total structure was 18.8%, or just over 520 thousand people. According to the study, the average age of the unemployed was 36.8 years, and it took an average of 5.9 months to find a job in December last year. At the same time, the majority of the unemployed (29.2%) have been looking for work for one to three months, and 16.3% of the unemployed have been looking for work for a year or more. Experts note that it is much more difficult to find a job in rural areas than in the city. 22.4% of the rural unemployed were in a state of long-term unemployment (they had been looking for work for more than one year), and only 13.3% of the urban population.

Analysts say that the unemployment rate has decreased in almost all regions of the Russian Federation, but the range of unemployment rates still varies significantly in different subjects. In the fourth quarter of 2022, this indicator in the regions of the Russian Federation ranged from 1.6% to 28.4%.

To assess the situation in the regional context, the News Agency experts have prepared a rating of Russian regions in terms of unemployment based on Rosstat data for the fourth quarter of 2022.

The leader of the rating was the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug, where the unemployment rate was 1.6%. The leading group with an unemployment rate of less than 2.5% also includes the Kamchatka Territory, the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug, St. Petersburg, Tatarstan, Moscow, the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, the Vladimir Region, the Kursk Region, the Khabarovsk Territory and the Samara Region.

In total, in 49 regions, unemployment in October and December 2022 was below the national level. The unemployment rate was higher than the country as a whole, in 36 regions, of which six had unemployment exceeding 10%. The most difficult employment situation is recorded again in Ingushetia, where the unemployment rate is 28.4%, experts say.

As already noted, compared to the fourth quarter of 2021, unemployment decreased in 76 regions, and in some of them significantly. Unemployment growth was recorded in six regions, and in three it remained at the same level.

In the period from October to December 2022, compared to the same period of the previous year, the most pronounced decrease in the unemployment rate was observed in the Republic of Adygea (-4.2 percentage points). In three other regions, it decreased by more than two percentage points: in the Republic of Buryatia (-2.7 points), in the Tyva Republic (-2.6 points) and in the Sakhalin region (-2.1 points). The most noticeable increase in the unemployment rate was in St. Petersburg (+0.6 points).

Analysts indicate that the average job search time by region in the third quarter of 2022 was 6 months and ranged from 3.3 months to 13.8 months. The shortest job search time is indicated in the Nizhny Novgorod and Moscow regions, where the average is 3.3 months for a job seeker, St. Petersburg (3.4 months) and Tatarstan and Moscow (3.5 months each). The longest job search period is in Karachay-Cherkessia, where job search takes 13.8 months, in North Ossetia (9.9 months), Trans-Baikal Territory (9.7 months), Altai Republic (9.3 months) and Mordovia (9 months).

* The rating was prepared by the the News Agency agency by RIA Rating specialists.