Unemployed people deceived statistics made by the Russian Unemployment Service

Research based on the method of the International Labor Organization shows that there were more than eight million unemployed people in Russia at the beginning of this year. This is about 11 per cent of country's work force, whereas official statistics reports only 1.5 per cent. The thing is that the Russian Unemployment Service registers only those who apply for unemployment compensation, and their number is much less than real unemployment figures, RBC informs. Being short of money, the Unemployment Fund resorts to red-tape measures and keeps people standing in long queues. Who can endure this? Usually, they are elderly women with mulish obstinacy. Who are trying to avoid these lengthy procedures? They are men, who prefer to get a job rather than receive unemployment benefits. As a result, official data says that 70 per cent of the unemployed are women, whereas independent research shows that their percentage is less than 50, the Izvestia newspaper reports.