Coronacrisis increases number of unemployed Nizhnekamsk citizens fourfold in a year
The Nizhnekamsk labour market needs foreign constructors, teachers and salespeople
The novel coronavirus infection continues attacking. According to Nizhnekamsk’s anti-coronavirus taskforce, 326 citizens of the city and district have been diagnosed with COVID-19, nearly 300 people have recovered from the artful ailment. A hotline has begun operating again in the city, it has received over 200 addresses in a month. COVID-19 is not only weakening public health but also generally impacting socio-economic indicators. The forced spring lockdown severely hit all sectors of the economy, thus raising the unemployment rate in Nizhnekamsk. Today more than 5,100 Nizhnekamsk citizens have signed up in the Employment Agency, 4,200 of them are officially unemployed, the city’s administration said on 22 November.
Such an unemployment rate for the first time in 10 years
The labour market of Tatarstan’s petrochemical capital hasn’t seen such an unemployment rate Nizhnekamsk has nowadays in more than 10 years, participants in the meeting in the city administration said. Restrictive measures especially hit public catering establishments — cafes, restaurants didn’t operate, while their employees had to leave their jobs, commerce was also affected when owners of stores that didn’t sell food had to close their stores in the city’s shopping malls. Moreover, the peak in the labour market of Nizhnekamsk District was in October, the rate rose by almost 2,5% compared to the beginning of the year. The biggest rise in the number of unemployed people — 5,1% — was in Kamskiye Polyany where the labour market had already been in a depressive state for many years.
The situation is gradually starting to change, noted Director of the city’s Employment Agency Farid Gilmanov: the number of those who didn’t have a job for some time is reducing:
Compared to other monotowns in Tatarstan, the situation in Nizhnekamsk doesn’t look so gloomy. For instance, the unemployment rate in neighbouring Yelabuga is 4,5% today, while in Naberezhnye Chelny it is 3,2%, the highest rate is in Zelenodolsk — 6,3%.
Foreigners will occupy vacant positions
Around 9,000 citizens of Nizhnekamsk have been seeking for a job since April. According to the Employment Agency, nearly 60% of the total number of registered unemployed people were dismissed in their previous workplace, 3% of them were dismissed due to closure or layoff.
Moreover, mostly women are unemployed in Nizhnekamsk, 64%. Recent university graduates account for just 0,1%. However, 26% of all Nizhnekamsk unemployed citizens are young people from 16 to 29 years. As Gilmanov noted, a job search on average takes around 5 months.
In early November, the Employment Agency had over 7,800 vacant positions — applications were received from almost 250 urban enterprises. However, foreigners account for a lion’s share in Nizhnekamsk — it is more than 5,300 jobs. It is positions of Turkey’s Gemont and ENKA companies that are working in enterprises of the petrochemical cluster.
If we look at the statistics, mostly schools and kindergartens of Nizhnekamsk need workers — it is 4,7% of the total number of vacant positions. An approximate number of positions is available in commerce and services, more than 600 people are expected in different plants of the city.
Moms on maternity leave and pre-pensioners to be taught new skills
The head of Nizhnekamsk’s Employment Agency noted that federal programmes on retraining and refresher courses help to smooth the upsurge in unemployment. So almost 90 Nizhnekamsk pre-pensioners have managed to get a new job or improve existing skills within The Older Generation federal project. Nearly 540,000 rubles were allocated for this from the federal and republican budgets.
Retraining of women who are on maternity leave with a kid under 3 years is another area. 700 Nizhnekamsk moms on leave have participated in the targeted programme by now. They were offered 15 new areas of activities that were taught, moreover, not only currently trendy manicure or makeup but also computer design, HR and even a B category car driver.
However, not only pre-pensioners or moms on maternity leave are given a chance of obtaining a new job. 5,6 million rubles have been allocated to Nizhnekamsk’s Employment Agency from the federal and republican treasury for 400 unemployed people’s training in 11 months, contracts at 3,6 million of them have been signed.
By the way, disabled people are also paid attention. 60 out of 300 people who have sought help this year have been employed. Another 85 “special” Nizhnekamsk citizens will receive help with finding a job till the end of the year.