26.04.09

Russia's economically active population shrinks by one million a year, the chief of the federal statistics service Rosstat, Vladimir Sokolin, told a news conference on Thursday.

In the past, the shortfall was compensated for by migration, but now migrants have begun to flee the Russian economy. There has developed a very dangerous trend in Russia, because there have been no examples in history of a country showing economic growth at a time when its economically active population is shrinking, Prime-Tass reports.

The statistics service chief said that as soon as the country begins to emerge from the crisis, Russia will be faced with a shortage of workforce.

Sokolin also said that the population census that might help clear up the human resources situation, originally scheduled for 2010, may be postponed.

The situation remains complicated, because conducting a population census will require nearly 11 billion rubles, including 8 billion rubles to be paid in remuneration to census takers.

Sokolin believes that the question of reserving the funds for the census is to be decided in 3-4 weeks.

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Source: Itar-Tass