Russian unemployment spans from 1.1% in St. Petersburg to 46.9% in Ingushetia

MOSCOW. March 26 (Interfax) – Differentiation between the levels of unemployment in Russia’s federal districts remains strong – the gap in the districts can surpass four-fold and in the regions 40-fold, the Federal State Statistics Service Rosstat said in a report on employment and unemployment in February.

The lowest level of unemployment, in accordance with ILO criteria, was in the Central Federal District at 3.3%, while the highest was in the North Caucasus Federal District at 13.7%.

Unemployment levels in February were 4.6% in the North West Federal District, 5.2% in the Volga FD, 6% in the Urals FD, 6.9% in the Far East FD, 7.2% in the Southern FD and 7.6% in the Siberian FD.

Unemployment in Russia overall was 5.8% in February, compared to 6% in January and 5.3% in December.

Among the regions with the highest levels of unemployment in December 2012 to February 2013 (on average for the three months for increased data representation) were Ingushetia (46.9%) and Chechnya (27.1%). There was also high unemployment in Tuva (15%), Kalmykia (14.5%), Dagestan (12.5%), Altai (11.6%) and Transbaikal (10.7%).

The lowest levels of unemployment in December-February were in St. Petersburg (1.1%), Moscow (1.2%), the Moscow region (3%), and the Samara and Magadan regions (3.2% in each).