The slow return of growth to Russia's economy this year will not provide much help to people looking for jobs, with unemployment expected to remain elevated, the International Labor Organization has said.
"The global oil price decline has weighed heavily on the Russian Federation's economy, combined with economic sanctions from the European Union and the United States," the United Nations organization said in its employment outlook for 2017 on January 12.
The improvement foreseen in Russia's economy, with growth rising to about 1.5 percent this year, is due to the recovery in oil prices since last year, it said, and an assumed "cessation of sanctions" by the EU.
Nevertheless, the organization expects the number of unemployed in Russia to remain at last year's level of 4.3 million.
It said joblessness will actually rise in Russia, but will not appear to do so because many Russians will leave the country to seek work elsewhere, shrinking the size of the labor force.
Prospects for new jobs are not much better in ex-Soviet Central Asia, despite a stronger revival of growth to around 2.6 percent during the year.
"This is mainly because economic growth is based on a narrow range of commodity sectors, which have limited potential to generate jobs," it said.