Over 1.6 mln Unemployed Officially Registered In Russia: State Statistics Committee

At the end of March, a total of 1,628,000 unemployed were officially registered in Russia, including 229,000 in the Chechen Republic. This information was published by the State Statistics Committee on Monday.

This is 10.1 per cent more than in March 2002, the report reads.

The total number of the unemployed, including those unregistered, is estimated at 5,975,000 people, which is 2.7 per cent more compared with last March.

The number of economically active people reached 71.5 million in the late March, which makes about 50 per cent of Russia's total population, the State Committee on Statistics pointed out.

According to the statistics, most Russians work in large and medium enterprises. In February 2003 they were 39.8 million or 60.8 per cent of the total number of working Russians.

Besides, 1,740,000 people had a part-time job in such organisations or worked on a civil contract basis.