Pay rises for Belarusian public sector employees due to layoffs

According to the Council of Ministers decision No 300 of April 12^th, 2016, Belarusian public sector employees’ wages would increase if enterprises ‘optimize the structure and number of their employees’. In 2016, wages in public sector should have grown within the inflation level. In 2015, public sector was one of the largest vacancy generators. The number of vacancies in the public sector is expected to reduce and amid shortage of jobs, laid off workers would add to the number of unemployed. In the regions, where the proportion of public sector is significant, retail trade turnover may reduce. Amid budget deficit, layoffs are unlikely to lead to a significant increase in wages of public sector employees, so as the bulk of the saved funds from the ‘optimization of resources’ will be spent on funding state programmes.