Five vacancies for each jobless in Minsk
Presently, there are 3600 officially registered jobless citizens in Minsk. At the same time, there are almost 18000 free vacancies in the city, 80 percent of which are blue collar jobs. Among them, there is a huge demand for construction workers. The European Radio for Belarus finds out why guest workers from Belarus seek employment abroad, when there are enough jobs for them here in this country.
“There is a huge demand for builders, drivers and industrial workers. Also wanted are sales attendants, cashiers and chefs…” Ina Siamikonava, the spokeswoman for the employment center at the Minsk City Hall, told our radio.
When asked why Belarusian workers seek employment abroad while there is a huge offer of jobs here, she said that good money is paid in Belarus, too.
“For instance, there are 350 vacancies for painters in our database. Salaries on offer are Br800,000 ($400), Br700,000, Br600,000, Br750,000…Employers are even eager to get workers from the Minsk district,” Ina Siamionava said.
Residents from the other districts can get employed in Minsk without any problem, too. The most important thing for them is to be able to go home daily. Another thing is with the residents from remote areas. Organizations can employ them, but not all of them.
Ina Siamionava: “There is a special procedure for inviting non-residents to Minsk. But, there are trusts, organizations, large enterprises which are given quotas and they have the right to invite workers from the other areas of Belarus. In this case, employers prefer highly qualified professionals and single, because employers must provide accommodation for them.”
With this huge demand, why are there 3600 jobless people in Minsk?
Ina Siamionava: “This figure includes 55 percent of women. In this case, one can say that offer does not meet the demand. There is still a lot of economists, lawyers, teachers and professors, secretaries and commodity managers at the labor market.”
These people are told to retrain for new professions, but few want to work as construction workers. Ms Siamionava failed to answer where employment centers are going to get people in order to fill free vacancies. All the hopes are set for migrants from remote regions.
When our correspondent asked her a hypothetic question: “Would you send your husband who is a builder to work in Moscow on the promise that he would come back with $3000-$4000 after three months?”, she did not hesitate to say yes. She would only check if the employer was reliable.
