The problem of staff shortages in the agricultural sector was raised at the Vitebsk Regional Executive Committee
As of January 1, 2018, about 3.5 thousand unemployed people were registered with the labor, employment, and social protection authorities. This is almost a third less than last year, reported Alexander Khristoforov, Chairman of the Committee for Labor, Employment, and Social Protection of the Regional Executive Committee.
People have started to turn to the employment service more often for assistance in finding jobs
Positive trends have emerged: the registered unemployment rate has decreased to 0.7%, the number of vacancies in the region has increased 1.9 times (as of early 2018, there were over 4.6 thousand vacancies), people have started to turn to the employment service more often for assistance in finding jobs, and more than half (58.3%) were able to find employment.
Nearly 6.5 thousand citizens found employment in newly created jobs, and the Vitebsk region exceeded the government's targets by almost 12%.
For those who, for various reasons, could not find suitable employment, the state provides various types of social support: unemployment benefits are provided during the period of searching for permanent work, temporary employment options in seasonal jobs and public works are offered, and retraining in the most in-demand specialties is conducted with subsequent employment.
Special attention is paid to citizens who cannot compete equally in the labor market: disabled persons, conscripts, and persons released from places of deprivation of liberty, as well as graduates of higher, secondary specialized, and vocational-technical educational institutions.
Chairman of the Regional Executive Committee Nikolai Sherstnev positively assessed the work of the Committee for Labor, Employment and Social Protection of the Population, which has repeatedly been recognized at the ministry level and is constantly among the leaders in meeting the set indicators.
"Today, we should talk not so much about the problem of employment, but about the unwillingness of people to work."
At the same time, the head of the region called for focusing on pressing issues in the sphere of employment and joining their solution. Nikolai Nikolaevich emphasized that today we should talk not so much about the problem of employment and job placement, but about another one – the unwillingness of people to work.
Thus, Vitebsk region still needs workers of working specialties, and this issue is particularly acute in the agricultural sector.
– Those who want to work will work. We will help, retrain those who need it, offer vacancies, but in response, we often hear, I can't, I don't want to, it doesn't suit me, – noted the chairman of the regional executive committee and gave an example of the employment of former employees of "KIM". – Then a special commission was created, people were offered employment options. And we received refusals solely because it was necessary to get to the new place of work by public transport.
Nikolai Sherstnev also outlined options for solving the problem of staffing the agro-industrial complex, whose work is currently considered unpromising and in demand due to difficult working conditions and low wages.
"It is necessary to offer preferential conditions for admission to young people from rural areas."
– More than five hundred specialists are currently lacking in animal husbandry. Here are the jobs, and there is no need to create new ones. We train personnel at the veterinary academy and the Luzhesnyan college. Budget funds are spent on this annually. Why then are there no specialists? We teach urban dwellers who, naturally, will never go to work in the village. We need to offer preferential admission conditions for young people from rural areas, increase the share of practical training, and pay for it, – noted the chairman of the regional executive committee.
The region's leadership plans to approach the President with a proposal to grant a two-year deferment from military service to young specialists with agricultural specialties. This, according to the head of the region, will contribute to retaining personnel in rural areas.
In addition, Nikolai Sherstnev announced his intention to conduct a technical experiment on the basis of the Vitebsk region: to make adjustments to the educational process, to modernize educational bases with the involvement of enterprises engaged in the production of agricultural machinery, in order to ensure a sufficient and up-to-date level of specialist training.
– We will do all this in a working manner. The main thing is to understand: if we create conditions for economic development, the issue of employment for the unemployed will also be resolved, – summarized the chairman of the regional executive committee.
Small business will help ensure economic growth and solve issues in the labor market. Minister of Labor and Social Protection Irina Kostevich oriented local authorities to comprehensively support this sector of the economy, the need to promote its development, and the transformation of micro-enterprises with three employees into business entities employing dozens of people.
Also, at the meeting of the regional executive committee, issues of the work of local authorities with appeals from citizens and legal entities, as well as the organization of land improvement measures in the Vitebsk region were considered.