NSO updates on socio-economic changes

The National Statistics Office of Mongolia (NSO) released its monthly Social and Economic Report on November 15.

The latest report highlights a 0.5 percent decrease in unemployment, increase in revenues and expenditure of social insurance and welfare, and improvement in health.

UNEMPLOYMENT

The latest labor force survey reported that the number of people with jobs has risen by 4.1 percent, or by 46,500 people, although the number of unemployed hasn’t changed since October 2016.

As of October 31, 835,000 people above the age of 15 were recorded economically inactive and most of them, specifically 61.3 percent, were female. Mongolia's unemployment rate became 9.1 percent in the third quarter of 2017, dropping by 0.5 percentage points since the previous quarter, and by 0.3 compared to the same period of 2016.

Registered unemployment trends

By the end of October, 34,300 people had registered at labor agencies, 72.6 percent of which, or 24,200 people, were actively searching for jobs while the rest were seeking a new or extra job. The number of registered unemployed people decreased by 4.5 percent (1,100 people) since last month but increased by 22.9 percent (7,200 people) compared to October 2016.

Reportedly, 61.9 percent of these people are between the ages of 15 and 34. Over the last 10 months, 68,900 new people registered as unemployed and 17,100 of these people found jobs while 62,000 people are not actively seeking jobs.

SOCIAL INSURANCE AND WELFARE

The top five changes in the social insurance and welfare category are listed below.

1. The revenue of the social insurance fund reached 1.7 trillion MNT in October, up by 16.9 percent compared to last year.

2. The General Authority for Health and Social Insurance of Mongolia analyzed that upsurge in the revenue attributed to the increased revenues of pension insurance fund, which rose by 154.8 billion MNT, and health insurance fund, which increased by 46.3 billion MNT. 3. The expenditure of the social insurance fund reached 1.5 trillion MNT, up by 8.4 percent, specifically 119 billion MNT, compared to September 2016.

4. The main cause of the increase is speculated to be the 7.4 percent increase in pension insurance spending and 12.7 percent increase in health insurance spending. The expenditure of pension insurance rose by 80.9 billion MNT and health insurance expenditure by 24.8 billion MNT.

5. Over the past 10 months, 145.4 billion MNT was distributed as cash allowances to 1.055 million children. The balance hasn’t change since July because cash allowances weren’t distributed in the last three months.

HEALTH

Since January 1, 60,817 women have given birth to 61,187 children, which indicates that the numbers of pregnant women and live births decreased by 7.3 percent and 7.1 percent respectively.

Infant mortality rate per 1,000 live births and under-five mortality remain at 14 and 17.

Maternal mortality rate was recorded 15 as of October, which is lower by 16 mothers compared to the same period of the previous year. The maternal mortality rate per 100,000 births also decreased to 25.

Over the past 10 months, more than 36,700 cases of communicable disease were reported, which is 25,800 cases, or 41.2 percent, lower compared to October 2016. Patients affected with measles decreased by 30,200 people (99.9 percent), those with tuberculosis by 256 people (7.3 percent), those with hepatitis by 30 people (6.4 percent), and patients with trichomoniasis became fewer by 99 people (2.7 percent).

However, the number of people affected by chicken pox reached 3,342 (up 78.4 percent), patients suffering from dysentery reached 844 (up by 34.7 percent), patients with fungal infections reached 145 (up by 19.2 percent), and patients with gonococcal infection reached 117 (up by 5.6 percent).