Labour Force
The Russian labour force is undergoing tremendous changes. Although well-educated and skilled, it is largely mismatched to the rapidly changing needs of the Russian economy. The unemployment rate in Russia was 8.1% as of 2009. Unemployment is highest among women and young people. Following the breakup of the Soviet Union and the economic dislocation it engendered, the standard of living fell dramatically. However, since recovering from the 1998 economic crisis, the standard of living has been on the rise. As of 2007 about 15% of the population was living below the poverty line, compared to 40% in 1999. The average yearly salary in Russia was $7,680 (about $13,800 PPP) as of May 2008, up from $455 per year in August 1999.
According to the FMS, as of 2011, there were 7,000,000 immigrants working in Russia. Half of these were from Ukraine, while the remainder was mostly from Central Asia. Only 3 million or less than half of all the immigrants are legal. Illegal immigrants number 4 million, mostly from Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Moldova. The Census usually covers only a part of this population and the last one (2002 Census) counted one million non-citizens.
Read more about this topic: Demographics Of Russia
Famous quotes containing the words labour and/or force:
“Indeed, I thought, slipping the silver into my purse ... what a change of temper a fixed income will bring about. No force in the world can take from me my five hundred pounds. Food, house and clothing are mine for ever. Therefore not merely do effort and labour cease, but also hatred and bitterness. I need not hate any man; he cannot hurt me. I need not flatter any man; he has nothing to give me.”
—Virginia Woolf (18821941)
“Nations do not think, they only feel. They get their feelings at second hand through their temperaments, not their brains. A nation can be broughtby force of circumstances, not argumentto reconcile itself to any kind of government or religion that can be devised; in time it will fit itself to the required conditions; later it will prefer them and will fiercely fight for them.”
—Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (18351910)