Unemployment rate down for a third consecutive month

Registered unemployment in June continued to fall, by 0.6 percentage points, for a third consecutive month, reaching 15.6% of the economically active population by the end of the month, which is the lowest indicator since the end of last year.

The drop in unemployment rate is related both to a lesser motivation on the part of job seekers to maintain their unemployed status with the State Employment Agency (for more than 60% registered unemployed, the term for receiving unemployment benefits has already run out), and to increased (albeit still inadequate) opportunities to find employment. Supporting the latter factor is both the slowly growing number of job vacancies registered with the SEA - reaching an 18-month maximum (2.7 thousand at the end of June) and the historically high number of unemployed that have found permanent employment  (6-8 thousand a month: twice the number of the end of last year). However, the number of those with a newly acquired unemployment status grew a little in June (up to 11.2 thousand), indicating that the signs of stabilization in the labour market are still fragile.

It is expected that in the next few months the number of registered unemployed will continue to drop, which will primarily be determined by the end of the 9-month term of receiving unemployment benefits for those unemployed who registered with the SEA during the peak period of layoffs (in the autumn of 2009). The registered unemployment could thus drop faster than actual unemployment or percentage of jobseekers. The number of newly created jobs will likely be inadequate this year: some of the jobseekers may lose hope of finging employment, which, with a delay in relation to the economic cycle, will continue to increase the number of economically inactive population.