Russia's labour market survived pandemic peak?

The Russian labor market has left behind the peak of the pandemic, Russia's Labor Minister Anton Kotyakov said.

The minister noted that Russia’s unemployment rate stood at 6.1% in May, an increase from 5.8% recorded in April by the state statistics service.

"The Russian Federation labor market in general has passed the peak of the pandemic, and was in a much better state than in many countries. We see that the unemployment level was at 6.1% in May," Kotyakov said, speaking at a conference run by the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs.

He said that as of Wednesday, the number of officially registered unemployed stood at 2.476 million.  

Kotyakov also said the domestic labour market had made it through the peak of the coronavirus pandemic better than a number of other countries.

He added the domestic labour market was expected to begin its recovery in the fourth quarter, Reuters reported.

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.

Rosstat, the state statistics service, is expected to release its unemployment data for May on Friday.