In June-August of 2013, the number of unemployed people decreased to 440 thousand, 16 thousand less compared with the same period last year. While male unemployment rate decreased by 0.9 percentage point to 9.7 percent, unemployment for women remained unchanged from previous year’s rate of 10.2 percent.
52.7 percent of unemployed people had been searching for a job for one year or more and the average duration of unemployment was 18.6 months in the review period.
In June-August of 2013, the number of employed people increased to 3.98 million, from 3.91 million in the corresponding period of 2012. The employment rate rose 1.7 percentage points to 52.2 percent in the 15-74 age group.