Starting January 16, a new website will become available for Russian internet users - "Employment in Russia." Minister of Healthcare and Social Development Tatyana Golikova reported the news to Prime Minister Putin at yesterday's meeting of the Government's Presidium.
The new website already has over 740,000 vacancies listed in its database. The database will continue growing, as there are 1.4 million unemployed officially registered with placement services, the Minister said. Furthermore, the Ministry of Science and Education has contracted 250 educational facilities to provide retraining services for those interested. Some of these facilities even have foreign instructors on their staff. The opportunities are there, but people need to make an effort to take advantage of them.
Look for jobs on the Internet
"Under the current circumstances, we need to focus our efforts on working out anti-crisis measures and on monitoring the efficiency of those measures that have already been implemented. In this respect, we need to monitor most closely the situation in the labour market," Prime Minister Putin said at the Government's Presidium meeting yesterday.
According to Rosstat (Federal Statistics Agency), the number of unemployed in Russia already exceeded 5 million people at the beginning of the year. This is the total number of people who are out of work, including those who for whatever reason are not interested in employment. The number of those officially registered with placement agencies is 1,454 million.
It is the latter who will receive government assistance. The unemployment benefit has already been increased, and now the Government is planning informational support for job seekers.
"On January 16, the Ministry of Healthcare and Social Development will launch a website called ‘Employment in Russia'," Minister Tatyana Golikova said yesterday. "As of today, there are 740,734 vacancies listed in the database."
She said that official information from regional placement agencies will be available on the website. Specifically, job seekers will be able to see the title of the job, the region where it is offered, and the minimum salary.
Of course, the fact that there is a state employment website does not guarantee that everyone will be able to find the job he desires; some people will be required to change their specialty to find employment.
"We are currently evaluating the retraining programmes submitted by educational organisations, industry segments, and placement agencies," Andrei Fursenko, Minister of Science and Education, said yesterday.
"We are planning to involve experienced instructors from countries with which we have good partnerships to train ‘blue collar' workers or qualified employees," the Minister said. He also said that his Ministry would support those 250 educational organisations with the most efficient retraining programmes.
2.5 jobs per person
Jobs are indeed available even during the difficult crisis times. One can easily find proof of that when reading through the free ads in a local Orel newspaper. The January 5th issue of the paper has 2,027 vacancies listed, which is equivalent to two jobs for each unemployed person registered at the local placement agency. In fact, the latter offers far fewer jobs than the newspaper, and you will never find a vacancy there for a commercial director with a salary of 35,000 roubles, or for a director assistant with a salary of 25,000, the only job requirement being "no cursing in the presence of ladies".
Of course, you will later find out that what they really need is an administrator and not director, or a milkmaid instead of assistant. Unlike in the past, however, even these jobs may be desirable. There is demand for assemblers, skilled operators, grinders, and welders. In Orel, shop assistants and drivers are also in demand. There are 193 immediate openings for the former, and 187 for the latter. They are followed by movers, guards, and street cleaners, with a total of around 100 openings available and an average salary of 6,500 roubles. The same salary is offered to coat-check attendants with an every-other-day work schedule.
According to information from the Voronezh Region's Department of Labour and Employment, 70 companies have already laid off their employees. However, there are over 1,500 openings offered by the government contractors in the region. In addition, the state job placement agency has about 10,000 openings listed just for the city of Voronezh.
Starting in October of last year, 1,000 employees have been losing their jobs every week in St Petersburg. The information was provided by Mikhail Oseyevsky, the city's Deputy Governor. However, each week from 2,000 to 3,000 people find jobs through the local placement agency. According to the latter, the most in-demand occupations are cleaners, drivers, unskilled workers, security guards, painters, nurses, cashiers, and engineers. Salaries start from 5,500 roubles, which is higher than the subsistence level.
In Tatarstan, they are planning to launch public works; for example, people will be able to participate in city improvement works. The carmaker KamAZ will be dispatching about 2,000 workers, temporarily out of work due to reduced production volumes, to the neighbouring city of Nizhnekamsk to work at the construction of the largest oil refinery in Russia. The project was in need of construction workers and this type of "staff exchange" came in handy.
Alexei Zakharov, head of the Superjob.ru employment site, said that as of early January, the trend has been positive. Vacancy ads as well as resumes are being posted actively. Over 6,000 new vacancies were posted just yesterday, and by the end of the week about 50,000-60,000 more postings are expected.
"Many of our clients are large employers who have renewed their contracts with us this year," Zakharov said. "Jobs are available in almost every industry, and job seekers have been as active this year as during the same period last year."
It appears that with due effort and if need be, everyone can find a job. Obviously, job seekers may need to lower their expectations, but that is natural during a time of crisis.
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Investments have been put on hold
The economic crisis has forced the Government to tighten its belt. It has been decided to reduce spending as much as possible and put the largest investment projects on hold.
"The Investment Fund activities should reflect the present situation in the economy and the social sphere," Prime Minister Putin said during yesterday's meeting of the Government's Presidium.
Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Kozak said that out of the 21 projects previously approved for implementation in 2009, the Government decided to proceed with only 15. These projects have already been launched, and investors have confirmed their financial commitments.
As a result, the amount of funds allocated from the Investment Fund in 2009 will be reduced to 64 billion roubles, as opposed to the 113 billion roubles originally planned.
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Prime Minister Vladimir Putin urged people to take advantage of the benefits they are entitled to
Since January 1, new tax rules have come into effect and many additional benefits have become available. Mr Putin urged people to take advantage of the tax remissions.
"The Government would like to remind our citizens of the additional opportunities available to them. Those who are eligible to receive the benefits and tax remissions should take advantage of them," the Prime Minister said.
The tax deduction for those buying or building their own housing has been increased to 2 million roubles. Furthermore, the deduction also covers families who bought housing in 2008. In addition, the maternity capital can now be used for mortgage payments as soon as the second child is born. The Government has lifted the original requirement that a child be 3 years of age before a family can use maternity capital towards mortgage payments. Child allowances have also been increased by 8.5%. Finally, the Government has maximally eased employers' tax burden for employees' educational and retraining expenses, medical services, and home improvements.