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Unemployment in Russia grew at a rate of 100,000 people a week in January and February 2009 and had reached 2.150 million by the middle of June.
Currently, 6.5 million people are unemployed nationwide, Deputy Minister of Health and Social Development Maxim Topilin told Ekho Moskvy radio on Saturday, citing statistics prepared using the ILO methodology.
In October 2008, when the talk of the crisis only began, registered unemployment in Russia was under 1.5 million and overall unemployment stood at around four million people.
On Friday, Federation Council chairman Sergei Mironov accused the Ministry of Health and Social Development and regional authorities of understating unemployment.
According to Mironov, actual unemployment is coming close to eight million. "In the autumn people will come back from their gardens to the labour exchanges and it will become clear then that the Ministry of Health and Social Development wasted the summer months away.
Instead of providing concrete help to regions in developing employment support programmes, federal officials juggled figures and tried to smooth over the situation in the eyes of the state and the population,' Mironov said.
Source: ITAR-TASS - World Service Wire
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