Unemployment will still be one of Russia's major social problems this year, said President Dmitry Medvedev on Monday.
"Unemployment will remain the biggest social problem of this country," Medvedev told Mikhail Shmakov, head of the Federation of Independent Trade Unions.
"We must continue joint efforts and ease tensions on the labor market that intensified last year," the Interfax news agency quoted the president as saying.
In the course of Russia's modernization, new jobs should be steadily created, in particular in high-tech sectors,said the president.
Shmakov said the labor market was slowly recovering from the economic crisis, and there have been some positive signs including the reduction of salary debts.
Russia, whose economy depends heavily on energy resources, was hard hit by the global economic downturn with the most severe recession over past 10 years. Its annual gross domestic
product slumped by 8.5 percent last year.
An unemployment of 2.05 million was officially registered by the end of last year. The anti-crisis program for 2010 announced by the Russian government earlier this month was intended to
curb unemployment in the country.