Why Measured Unemployment in Russia Is So Low: the Net With Many Holes

Abstract

National output has fallen drastically in Russia in the past three years, and there is evidence that employment has also fallen substantially. Yet officially unemployment has only risen to a little over 1 per cent. This paper argues that in reality unemployment is very substantially higher. It draws in part on a survey of job- seekers registering at employment exchanges in eighteen districts, and in part on an advisory report prepared for the Russian Federal Employment Service. Essentially, it considers the various institutional and behavioural fac tors that explain the unemployed's low pro pensity to register at employment exchanges.