Russia’s unemployment rate stood at 6.1% in May, Labour Minister Anton Kotyakov said on Wednesday, an increase from 5.8% recorded in April by the state statistics service, Reuters reported.
Speaking at a conference run by the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, Kotyakov said the domestic labor market had made it through the peak of the coronavirus pandemic better than a number of other countries.
He said the domestic labor market was expected to begin its recovery in the fourth quarter.
Russia has the third-highest number of coronavirus cases in the world, with more than 550,000 infections.
Moscow, the area of Russia worst affected by the outbreak, last week began lifting a lockdown that had been in place for more than two months.
The unemployment rate announced by Kotyakov is slightly lower than the 6.2% analysts polled by Reuters had expected for May.
Rosstat, the state statistics service, is expected to release its unemployment data for May on Friday.
