YEREVAN, DECEMBER 8, NOYAN TAPAN. As of November 30, unemployment level decreased in Armenia by 0.4% as compared with the beginning of 2008 and made 6.3%. As Sona Haroutiunian, the Head of the State Employment Service agency, reported at the December 8 press conference, 91 thousand citizens looking for a job are registered at the agency at present. The highest unemployment level is recorded in the Syunik region, which is followed by the Shirak, Lori, Kotayk, and Tavush regions. According to S. Haroutiunian, though the number of officially registered unemployed is 6.3%, 27-28% real unemployment level is often spoken about. "These are also official data. It is people employed in the agricultural sphere, who made use of land privatization, but have not received a status by our current legislation: they are the concealed employed people and the housewives who did not wish to be registered," he said. In response to the question of what impact the world financial crisis will have on Armenia, S. Haroutiunian said that the mining sphere Armenian companies plan to dismiss 1655 employees: the biggest part of dismissals falls to the Dino Gold Mining Company, which is going to dismiss 60% or 725 employees and to reduce the salaries by 40%. It was also mentioned that dismissals of employees are expected not only in the mining, but also in the information technologies sphere. However, as the agency head predicted it, the number of people becoming unemployed due to the international crisis will not exceed 1% in Armenia.

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