Kaluga Region has recorded the lowest unemployment rate in Russia, at 0.8 percent, according to data from the Federal State Statistics Service, Rosstat, cited by TASS, one of Russia's largest state-run news agencies. Rosstat is the government body responsible for producing Russia's official economic and labour market statistics.
Nizhny Novgorod Region and Khabarovsk Krai shared second place, both posting an unemployment rate of 0.9 percent. Novgorod Region and the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug followed close behind, each recording a rate of 1 percent.
Where the lowest-unemployment regions are
Kaluga Region sits southwest of Moscow and has built a large automotive and industrial manufacturing base over the past two decades, drawing sizeable foreign and domestic investment in vehicle and component production. Nizhny Novgorod Region, on the Volga River, is home to the long-established GAZ Group vehicle plant and ranks among Russia's oldest industrial centres. Khabarovsk Krai lies in the Russian Far East, while the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug, in western Siberia, is one of the world's largest oil-producing regions and a major contributor to federal tax revenue. Novgorod Region, in Russia's northwest, is home to the historic city of Veliky Novgorod.
Russia has more than 80 federal subjects, or regions, and unemployment levels vary considerably between them depending on local industry and demographics. Rosstat calculates the figures using periodic surveys of the working-age population, rather than counting only people registered as jobless with state employment offices.
Average age of Russia's unemployed
The regional figures follow an earlier study that put the average age of unemployed people across Russia at 36.2 years. That research covered Russians aged 15 and older.
In August, Anton Kotyakov, Russia's Minister of Labour and Social Protection, said the country would need to bring around three million skilled workers into the economy over the next seven years. He said the shortage of workers had affected most of the country's key economic sectors. The ministry oversees national employment policy, pensions and social welfare programmes.
