Mrs. Zinaida Alexandrovna Rijikova,

Data are disseminated on the estimated number of unemployed persons in the Russian Federation.

Unemployed persons include those in the age range established for the measurement of economic activity who, during the period in question, simultaneously met the following criteria:

• had no job (profitable occupation);
• were seeking for a job; and
• were ready to start work during the reference period.

Pupils, students, pensioners, and disabled persons are considered unemployed if they were seeking for job and were ready to start it.

The data are obtained from the following sources:

• quarterly labour force surveys;
• monthly official data on the number of persons who have no job registered by the employment offices;
• tendencies of changes in the unemployment ratio according to the data of the labour force surveys; and
• number of persons who have no job registered by the employment offices on the date of the labour force survey.

The sample labour force survey is conducted quarterly in all the Russian regions. The planned sample is approximately 65,000 persons aged 15-72 quarterly or 0.06% of the total population of these age groups or approximately 260,000 persons calculated on an annual basis.

The labor force survey is performed once per quarter as of the last week of the second month of the quarter, i.e., February, May, August, and November. The critical (survey) week runs from Monday through Sunday.

Data on total unemployment covering all the constituent territories of the Russian Federation other than the Chechen Republic are compiled in accordance with International Labour Organization (ILO) standards.

The compilation and dissemination of the data are governed by the terms and conditions of the Положение о Федеральной службе государственной статистики (Statute on the Federal State Statistics Service), adopted by Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation on July 30, 2004 №399.

Article 1 of the Statute stipulates that the Federal State Statistics Service (the Rosstat) shall provide official statistical information that constitutes part of government information resources on the country's social, economic, demographic and ecologic status.

Article 5.4 of the Statute stipulates that the Federal State Statistics Service shall develop the official statistical methodology for the compilation of statistical observations and indicators, and provide conformity of the specified methodology to the international standards.

Article 5.15 of the Statute stipulates that the Rosstat shall provide in appropriate way the storage and protection of official, banking, tax, and commercial and other confidential information, received by the Rosstat during its activities.

The data are provisional when first released. Preliminary data are not clearly identified as such in press releases and publications disseminated by the Rosstat.

The monthly estimates of the number of unemployed persons are revised after the latest labour force survey.

The final data are published 12 weeks after the end of the reference period for the most recent labor force survey in the monthly Rosstat bulletin Социально-экономическое положение России (Socio-economic Situation in Russia) and in the quarterly bulletin Обследование населения по проблемам занятости (Population Survey of Employment Problems).

The methodology for compiling specific indicators of the unemployment statistics is published in the publication Методологические положения по статистике (Methodological Principles in Statistics) (1996).

A copy may be ordered from the Information and Publishing Center "Statistics of Russia" (see the Dissemination Formats Page).

Data on unemployment can be cross-checked by the public against detailed data broken down by region of the Russian Federation, as well as information on the composition of unemployed labour force broken down by sex, age, educational level, marital status, occupation, and duration of job search, published in the following publications:

• Российский статистический ежегодник (Statistical Yearbook of Russia) (in Russian only);
• Социальное положение и уровень жизни населения России (Social Status and Living Standard in Russia) (in Russian only);
• Population Survey of Employment Problems (Обследование населения по проблемам занятости) (in Russian only);
• Труд и занятость в России (Labour and Employment in Russia) (in Russian only);
• Регионы России. Социально-экономические показатели (Regions of Russia. Social and Economic Indicators) (in Russian only);
• Russia in Figures (Россия в цифрах) (in Russian and in English).