Gallup: actual unemployment in Belarus is 24%

In Belarus, the actual unemployment is approximately 40 times higher than the official.

The results of a Gallup’s survey point to this fact.

According to Belstat, in December 2011 the official unemployment in Belarus was 0,6%. This number reflects the share of unemployed Belarusians registered in employment institutions compared to the general number of economically active population. The official statistics show that in the end of 2011 there were 4,655 mln economically active Belarusians: 2,376 women and 2,279 men, as AFN reports.

Belarus doesn’t calculate its unemployment rate according to the ILO methods. These methods include both the official unemployed and job-seekers.

Meanwhile, in Gallup’s surveys, adults get questions about their employment, where they are asked to define whether they work full-time or part-time. Those working part-time are asked if they want to get a full-time employment. After that, the data about full-time employees are added to the data about part-time employees who do not want to get a full-time job, and thus an actual unemployment is assessed.

According to the Gallup survey, in the end of 2011, the actual unemployment in Belarus was 30% among women and 19% among men. Taking into account the correlation between economically active women and men, the general percentage of unemployment in Belarus is 24%, which is 40 times higher than the official figure.

This method demonstrates another indicator – the gap between unemployment among men and women in Belarus. The gap is 11 percentage points; for example, in Russia it equals 3 percentage points, in Saudi Arabia – 23 percentage points.