Unemployed not finding work

More than 470,000 of the 4.64m workers laid off from state companies had found new jobs by the end of June and the remaining 4.12m were learning new skills at retraining centres, according to a Ministry of Labour and Social Security report. Unemployment insurance covered 101m people and 3.7m were receiving unemployment benefit at the end of June, 1.3m more than a year earlier. The ministry said that unemployment among urban workers could increase further this year, but that it hoped the level could be kept under 4.5 per cent, the figure forecast by the government at the beginning of the year.