Unemployment in Russia grows slowly but steadily

According to the International Labour Organisation, at the end of April 2003 the number of the unemployed in Russia totalled 6.3 million /8.9 per cent of the country's economically active population/, the State Statistics Committee stated.

This is 6.2 per cent more compared with the previous quarter and 8.7 per cent more than in April 2002.

Officially registered unemployment in the same period equaled 1.6 million people /244,000 out of which in the Chechen republic/, the State Statistics Committee reported.

At the end of April the number of the economically active population amounted to 70.9 million people /about 50 per cent of the country's total population/. The majority of employed people /62.1 per cent/ still work at big and medium enterprises.