Belarusians remain all alone with unemployment

Officially, there are no unemployed in Belarus, but the real picture looks different.

The Belarusian authorities are constantly emphasizing that the rate of unemployment in the country doesn’t exceed .7%. In comparison with the neighbours, who have an unemployment level expressed in two-digit numbers, the absence of official jobless people is presented as a significant success of the Belarusian model.

In real fact, it is a complicated and humiliating procedure of obtaining an official status of unemployed and miserable unemployment payment that make Belarusians keep away from the state when looking for job. According to different estimations, from 1 million to 1.5 million of able-bodied Belarusians are not registered on the labour market. The officials statistics seems to suppose these people excluded themselves voluntary from economic life of the country. it’s not a secret that most of such people are looking for job, have left the country, or working illegally.

Part-time work is another way to hide an unemployment rate. Only in Minsk, where the situation is better than in other regions, the average monthly underemployment in the state-run industrial sector was about 12 per cent in 2010, BelaPAN reports with a link to the Main Statistics Department of Minsk. 10,800 people (48,3%) worked reduced weeks, 11,600 people (51.7%) were on enforced leave.

31,8% on enforced leaves didn’t get compensation for the period of leaves.

In other words, the state has removed itself from solving this pressing social problem and prefers not to protect Belarusians from losing their sources of subsistence.