Unemployment and crisis go hand in hand

Having cut down its expenses the banking system in Murmansk has tailed off and now keeping an eye on the world crisis whirlpool.

Home Credit and Finance Bank temporarily froze loans on mortgage and auto loans; while the other types of loans have 40 % decreased. In early December the bank decided to downsize 20% of the staff setting free 20 bank specialists in Murmansk and hundreds of people all over Russia; besides the bank closed down their representative offices in the Murmansk regional settlements of Polyarny, Snezhnogorsk, Kirovsk, Apatity and Monchegorsk informs Barentsnova the administrator of Home Credit Bank. Russian Standard Bank froze down crediting for about three weeks, yet by this time it is fully operational. Uralsib, VTB-24, Kit Finance and the others are also scrutinizing the downsizing steps for their employees.

Russian Ministry of Labour reports of 46 000 people to be downsized as the aftermath of the global crisis. Yet the official figures should be multiplied by five to get the factual result, says Headhunter.ru (leading Russian recruiting web-portal) to vedomosti.ru.

Murmansk regional ministry of economic development looks more optimistic in the crisis-related background of the unemployment and crediting stagnation. The experts say that governmental stabilization efforts iron out the existing situation; in comparison to the period of early 2008 in Murmansk – the bank deposits increased 9.8% while the bank credits increased 19%.

Despite this, the financial crisis in Russia turned to be a serious problem, reports www.rb.ru. The wave of downsizing covered 11% of the Russians, besides 10% of the employees apprehend the same in the nearest future.

Photo: www.thehindubusinessline.com