Moscow: Siberian employment rate still high

Despite the economic downturn employment rates in Siberia have remained strong, a Russian finance committee reported recently. Siberia remains a magnet for those in the labor market, a true beacon for all types who for one reason or another are destined to break rocks or shovel. In fact, the report stated, the Siberian work camp sector has grown steadily since the early nineteenth century, with only a slight drop in the number of workers following the Bernard Madoff scandal.

The camps recently have attracted former citizens of the Soviet Union, both young and old, male and female, as well as former Russian oil tycoons and entrepreneurs –  a testament, according to Russian officials, of Siberia’s breadth of opportunity and economic diversification.

“There’s something for everyone here, and a real opportunity for advancement” says ninety-two year old Vlado S., who refused to give his full name in order not to risk his worker benefits, such as a blanket and spoon. “I started off carrying buckets eighty three years ago and now I slice turnips. The unemployed in Moscow would beg me for this job.”

The committee is set to release the second part of its report, which will focus on efforts to financially restructure the once lucrative but now tottering Gulag system, early next winter. There is one early sign of what the report may have to offer. “The Russian Gulag system is fundamentally sound,” said one committee official who demanded anonymity because of the government prohibition to discuss anything.