The total number of unemployed people in...
Alexander Zhukov said at a news conference in Moscow that over 900,000 people had been dismissed since monitoring started on October 1, 2008, and that 480,000 more could lose their jobs in the immediate future.
According to Russia"s statistics service Rosstat, some 6.2 million Russians are currently unemployed, with the unemployment rate exceeding 8%, he said. Official figures are much lower as many Russian do not collect unemployment benefits, which are generally very low.
Zhukov also said the government intended to develop programs to maintain Soviet-era single-industry towns, which have been hit hard by the global economic crisis as demand for their products has fallen.
"This year, the situation will be difficult, and the enterprises... are unlikely to resolve their problems themselves," he said.
However, the deputy premier said the Russian authorities had managed to avert a dramatic increase in unemployment.