Where is it good for the unemployed to live? – The new FBK rating gives an answer to this question

To be unemployed is bad anywhere. However, globally the countries differ noticeably in terms of amounts of the unemployment benefit (in Russian), they guarantee by the law and pay out to their citizens. Compared by absolute indices, the first place among the countries of Europe plus the USA and Russia is taken by Denmark with its average monthly amount of payment based on the total amount of payout and the number of dole recipients of US $1544.6 (by the results of 2011, based on the latest statistical data available). Norway comes the second – US $1502.5, the Netherlands come the third with US $1413.7. For data comparability the calculations were made on the purchasing capacity parity rate (PCPR).
Russia is found in the 26th place on the list under the analysis with US $164.7 per month, which is 8.5-9 times lower than the in the leading countries.
FBK analysts also point out that practically in all countries, contrary to Russia, legal standards for calculating the amount of unemployment benefit are based on a much wider range of factors allowing for better observance of the principle of social justice in setting the dole rates.
In the result, for example, in one of the leading countries of the rating – Denmark – the unemployed can be entitled, with all factors taken into account, to the dole amounting to 90% of average wages.
In Russia the statutory amount of the unemployment benefit is 4900 roubles per month – about 17% of the average wage – which is below the subsistence level determined by the state for able-bodied population as 6705 roubles per month (as at the end of 2012).
The size of the unemployment benefit is a meaningful indicator of the state sociality level. Russia is the country where the state social level is fixed by Constitution. However, the current size of the dole does not evidence the execution of constitutional requirements. And at the same time the other extreme – excessively high unemployment benefit – is hardly justifiable as it generates parasitical attitudes.
“Anyway, - points out Igor Nikolayev, Director of the FBK Institute of Strategic Analysis, – at present the place of Russia in the rating speaks rather about the under size of the fixed dole amount. That is why surprising and alarming seems the calmness with which the top officials has recently begun notifying “quite of a sudden” the people in Russian about the growth of unemployment in the near future”.