There are more actual vacancies at enterprises in the Vitebsk region than are reported to the employment service

There are more real vacancies at enterprises and organizations in the Vitebsk region than are reported to the employment service. This was announced at a session of the Vitebsk Regional Council of Deputies by Irina Matveeva, Deputy Chairperson of the Committee for Labor, Employment and Social Protection of the Regional Executive Committee.

"The regional vacancy bank currently has about 2.5 thousand jobs, which is 2 times less than in the same period last year. This is due to the optimization of the workforce at enterprises, economic problems, and other reasons. There is also a subjective factor - not all enterprises and managers fully provide their available vacancies. Therefore, a monitoring was conducted to tighten control in this area. Out of 300 organizations, violations of employment legislation by employers were found in 23. This work will continue, as its result is obvious. Recently, the number of vacancies has slightly increased," emphasized Irina Matveeva.

Specifying the information about the vacancy bank, she noted that the largest number of jobs are offered by agricultural enterprises - 515 vacancies, manufacturing industry - 496, healthcare - 239, and trade - 237. The labor market is traditionally focused on blue-collar professions, but there is an observed increase in demand for highly qualified specialists (30% of the total vacancies).

Overall, in the Vitebsk region, the employment rate has not significantly changed in recent years and stands at 72.3%. This indicator has slightly decreased only in January-August of the current year for several reasons, particularly in manufacturing, agriculture, construction, and the transport and communication sectors. In January-August, organizations hired almost 57 thousand people, including 2.5 thousand for newly created jobs. 885 people were dismissed, which is 12.7% less than in the same period last year.

Over 8 months, almost 27,000 people applied to the region's employment service for assistance in finding employment. In July and August, the pace of citizen applications slowed down somewhat. As of September 1, 6,967 people were registered. The social profile of the average unemployed person is a 40-year-old man with vocational-technical education. "The measures taken to ensure employment of the population have allowed us to maintain the projected situation in the labor market. The registered unemployment rate as of September 1 did not exceed expected indicators and amounted to 1.3% of the economically active population," concluded Irina Matveeva.

Ekaterina Knyazeva, BELTA.