MINSK, 4 January (BelTA) – The previously mentioned possibility of raising the size of unemployment benefits has not been ruled out. Improving the aid available to the unemployed is still on the agenda of the Belarusian Labor and Social Protection Ministry, BelTA learned from Labor and Social Protection Minister Irina Kostevich on 4 January.
The official said: “Today the average size of the unemployment benefit is Br27. We understand it is quite a small sum. In 2019 a working group will be established under the House of Representatives of the National Assembly to amend the population employment law. Unemployment benefits will be one of the instruments the group will discuss. We understand that the state budget will have to deal with additional expenses but the country has chosen two directions of the labor policy: an active one and a passive one. Unemployment benefits represent a passive mechanism of the labor policy. Helping people find jobs and reduce the time between jobs as much as possible is the active one. This is why we are going to work on improving unemployment benefits.”
The possibility of paying unemployment benefits bearing in mind the average salary on the previous job was mentioned before. Mandatory insurance against unemployment was also suggested.
According to the Labor and Social Protection Ministry, as of 1 December 2018 the registered unemployment level was 0.3%, down from 0.6% in the same period of 2017. General unemployment, which is calculated in line with International Labor Organization methods, dropped by one percentage point in January-September 2018. The demand for workforce is on the rise: the national database of available jobs contained 79,000 entries in December. The number increased by 46% from early 2018.
