UrBC., Moscow, January 27, 2016. Russian banks’ overall balance profits reached 191.965bn RUR in 2015, which was three times less than in 2014 (589.141bn RUR), Finmarket refers to the Central Bank as stating. The profit figures actually came to 263.694bn in the eleven months of 2015, so in December, Russian banks lost 71.729bn RUR. In fact, only 553 Russian banks (71.5%) were actually making profit as of January 1, 2016. According to the Bank of Russia’s data, the number of profit-making banks rose by 29 in the month of December, while 180 banks (24.6%) incurred losses; this figure was 32

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, January 27, 2016. The number of job-seekers on Yekaterinburg labor market rose by 34% last year, while the number of job openings went up by 19%, HeadHunter’s research team reports. People looking for jobs in the Blue Collar segments proved the market’s most active category in the early 2016 (the number of submitted CVs went up by 85%), followed by those looking for jobs in Administration (+66%), Automobile Industry (+50%), Development & Real Estate (+48%), and Security (+47%). ‘Quite a few people make a New Year resolution of finding a new job, so candidates have

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, January 27, 2016. Deputy Mayor of Yekaterinburg for Urban Development, Transport, & Infrastructure Evgeniy Lipovitch called a meeting on January 25 to consider purchasing new road-clearing vehicles. The city council reports it was decided that enough money should be allocated for each of the local depots to buy one tractor with a set of attachments for summer and winter clean-ups. The auction for bidders willing to sell the vehicles to the city council will be opened this week; the new tractors will be used this year already. In the meantime, the city’s depots

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, January 27, 2016. 49% of Yekaterinburg residents who took part in a recent survey said the pay from their primary employers had gone down in 2015, Zarplata.ru and E1. Rabota’s research findings indicate. 61% of respondents in this category said their pay had declined by around 30%, 22% said the decrease was 30% to 50%, and every one in five (18%) said their pay had shrunk by over 50%. 37% of those surveyed said their income had remained the same, while salaries of 14% of respondents actually went up by 10% to 30% (77% of respondents in this category) or as much as 50% or

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, January 27, 2016. Mayor of Nizhniy Tagil Sergei Nosov met Ural Vagon Zavod Corporation’s trade union activists to look at last year’s achievements and this year’s plans and to answer the workers’ questions. The company press service reports the mayor pointed to reconstruction of the city’s D.N. Mamin-Sibiryak Drama Theater, the construction of Presidentsky Sports Palace, the renovation of the Tagil Lagoon Embankment, the repairs of a bridge in Frunze St, and new housing projects as the previous year’s major events. These projects kept on going despite inadequate funding.