{"id":341608,"date":"2025-08-13T16:39:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-13T16:39:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/341608\/"},"modified":"2025-08-13T16:39:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-13T16:39:10","slug":"russia-faces-rise-in-hidden-unemployment-putin-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/341608\/","title":{"rendered":"Russia Faces Rise in ‘Hidden Unemployment,’ Putin Says"},"content":{"rendered":"

More than 100,000 Russian workers have been placed on reduced hours or unpaid leave since the start of the year, President Vladimir Putin said<\/a> Tuesday, warning of a sharp rise in what he called \u201chidden unemployment\u201d despite the country\u2019s official jobless rate sitting at a record low.<\/p>\n

Addressing a Kremlin meeting on economic issues, Putin said the number of workers under such arrangements \u2014 whom he described as \u201cat risk of dismissal\u201d \u2014 had nearly doubled in the past seven months.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the beginning of the year there were about 98,000 people in this situation, by the end of June it was 153,000, and by Aug. 8 the figure had reached 199,000,\u201d he said, according to a transcript released by the Kremlin.<\/p>\n

While official unemployment in Russia remains at 2.2%, the president said the latest figures signal a worrying trend that policymakers must \u201ccatch\u201d early to avoid \u201ccooling the economy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Among those in attendance at Tuesday\u2019s meeting were Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, Central Bank chief Elvira Nabiullina, Economy Minister Maxim Reshetnikov, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov and presidential aide Maxim Oreshkin.<\/p>\n

The rise in underemployment comes as major manufacturers, particularly in the automotive sector, respond to slumping demand and rising borrowing costs by cutting back on hours.<\/p>\n

This summer, several of Russia\u2019s largest automakers \u2014 including truckmaker KamAZ, the GAZ Group and AvtoVAZ \u2014 announced moves to a four-day workweek.<\/p>\n

In late July, the Likinsky Bus Plant, a subsidiary of GAZ, also reduced hours, while the Pavlovsky Bus Plant temporarily halted production amid falling sales.<\/p>\n

The slowdown is spreading beyond the auto industry. Cemros, the country\u2019s largest cement producer, which operates 18 plants nationwide, plans to shift to a shortened workweek starting Oct. 1.<\/p>\n

State rail monopoly Russian Railways has also been hit, with the company sending central office staff and employees of several regional divisions \u2014 including the Moskovsky, Oktyabrsky and Severnaya lines \u2014 on unpaid leave for two days each month through the end of the year.<\/p>\n

Sources told the business daily RBC that without such measures, the company would have been forced to carry out mass layoffs. Russian Railways has suffered the steepest drop in cargo volumes in its history, exacerbated by expensive credit.<\/p>\n

Putin said the number of officially registered unemployed had risen slightly, from 274,000 in January to 291,000 at the end of June and 300,000 in early August. He urged ministries, regional authorities and business associations to work closely together to address emerging problems.<\/p>\n

\u201cStay in constant contact with business groups, entrepreneurs and company workforces,\u201d he told officials. \u201cHelp them resolve issues and respond to the requests of enterprises, companies and their labor collectives.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"More than 100,000 Russian workers have been placed on reduced hours or unpaid leave since the start of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":341609,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3090],"tags":[51,1700,2046,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-341608","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-economy","10":"tag-putin","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115022447586252436","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341608","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=341608"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341608\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/341609"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=341608"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=341608"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=341608"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}