The registered unemployment rate in Belarus fell to 0.6% as of June 1st.

June 11, Minsk /Elena Prus - BELTA/. As of June 1, 2012, the registered unemployment rate in Belarus stood at 0.6% of the economically active population. This figure decreased by 0.1 percentage points in May, Nikolai Kokhonov, head of the employment policy department of the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection, told BELTA. For comparison, as of June 1 last year, this indicator was 0.7%. In the current year, registered unemployment remained at 0.7% for several months (since February 1, 2012). According to statistical data, unemployment remained unchanged in most regions of the country in May: it stayed at 0.8% in the Brest, Grodno, and Vitebsk regions, 0.7% in the Mogilev region, and 0.6% in the Minsk region. It decreased by 0.1 percentage points in the Gomel region (to 0.9%) and in Minsk (to 0.2%). "As predicted, the situation in the republic's labor market is stable and does not cause concern," the source said. "The situation is characterized by an increase in the number of vacancies and a decrease in the registration of unemployed people," Nikolai Kokhonov said. "Since spring, there has been a seasonal upturn in the republic's labor market: employers' demand for labor is growing, which means employment opportunities are expanding." However, the ministry representative admitted, vacancies in the state employment service database (based on employer requests) are not always attractive in terms of wages. As of June 1, 2012, 29.7 thousand people were registered as unemployed in Belarus with labor, employment, and social protection bodies – a 5.1% decrease compared to June 1, 2011. In May, the number of registered unemployed decreased by 0.9 thousand people (in April – by 0.4 thousand). Regarding the registration of unemployed people, in January-May, 78.9 thousand people received unemployed status – a 3% decrease compared to January-May of last year. Nikolai Kokhonov believes that special attention should be paid to career guidance for youth: "The economy needs professional skilled workers, and the demand for qualified labor is growing. Therefore, young people should plan their future based, among other things, on the real needs of the labor market and an impartial assessment of their knowledge. They should strive to obtain a specialty that is potentially in demand by employers." According to operational data, in January-May of the current year, the number of applications to the state employment service for assistance in employment decreased by 2.9% compared to the same period last year, to 117.8 thousand, and the number of people seeking employment decreased by 5.8% (163.7 thousand people, including 107.1 thousand unemployed). The number of employed people also decreased by 2.5% (in January-May 2012, with the assistance of labor, employment, and social protection bodies, 75 thousand people found jobs, including 54.4 thousand unemployed). As previously reported by BELTA, the Council of Ministers has approved the State Program for Employment Promotion of the Population of the Republic of Belarus for 2012. As a result of the implementation of the state program measures, the registered unemployment rate will not exceed 1.5% of the economically active population by the end of the current year. Key objectives include maintaining a stable employment situation; integrating target population groups needing social support into the labor sphere; improving the system of training and retraining of personnel in accordance with the needs of economic development; and providing information, career guidance, and methodological support for population employment. Moreover, the achievement of these objectives will be carried out not only through traditional measures that have proven effective in practice (assisting employers in creating jobs, helping the unemployed become self-employed, vocational training for the unemployed, adapting disabled people to work, relocation to new places of work and residence) but also with the consideration of new approaches. Among the program's priorities are improving the monitoring of the labor market situation and assisting employers in the structural transformation of the economy. The program is financed by the funds of the Social Protection Fund of the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection, including subsidies transferred to the budgets of the regions and Minsk. Almost Br226 billion will be allocated for the implementation of the state program measures in 2012.