The National Statistics Office of Mongolia (NSO) has released its Social and Economic Report for April.

The report shows some interesting changes in the economic and social situation of Mongolia observed in the first quarter of this year, including a wage increase, higher unemployment rate, and increase in the average monthly household income.

Economically active population declines

There are 1.3 million economically active population aged 15 and above in Mongolia, according to the first quarter results of the 2018 Labor Force Survey. Among these people, 665,400 people (52.6 percent) are men and 600,400 people (47.4 percent) are women.

The survey showed that 61.5 percent, or 778,800 economically active people, live in urban areas, while 38.5 percent, or 487,000 people, live in rural areas.

In the first quarter of 2018, the Labor Force Participation Rate (LFPR) stood at 60.6 percent, falling by 1.8 percentage points from the preceding quarter but increased by 1.1 percentage points from the same period of last year. The employed decreased by 4,100 people, or 0.4 percent, compared to the same period of the previous year and economically inactive population went down by 36,500 people, or 4.2 percent. However, the number of unemployed people increased by 7,600 people, or 6.6 percent, over the last quarter and reached 122,900 people by April 31. The majority of the unemployed are men, taking up 56.6 percent.

The unemployment rate has risen by 2.4 percentage points to 9.7 percent since the fourth quarter of 2017.

NSO reported that by the end of April, 34,500 people had filled applications at employment and labor organizations in search of jobs and that 23,400 of them are unemployed while the rest are people searching for a second job.

Labor organizations operating in Ulaanbaatar and provinces registered 294 new people who don’t have a job since January. A breakdown by gender shows that 12,300, or 52.6 percent of the total registered unemployed people are women. In the registered unemployed by region, 33.8 percent are living in Ulaanbaatar, 19 percent in the western region, 18.7 percent in the central region, 16.7 percent in Khangai region, and 11.8 percent in the eastern region.

Newly registered unemployed at the Labor and Social Welfare Services Agency, by reason, by percent, as of April 2018[/caption]

Nationwide, there are 468 people living with disabilities who wish to work but don’t have jobs, according to labor and social welfare services agencies.

One of the shocking things found in the report was the fact that the majority of newly registered unemployed people (51.8 percent) were dismissed from their previous job. Other reasons included unemployed after university, migration, being released from prison, returned from abroad, and unemployed after military.

According to NSO, unemployment is highest among young people living in Umnugovi, Arkhangai, Uvs, Khovd, Tuv, Orkhon, Dornod, and Govi-Altai provinces.

Registered unemployment trends[/caption]

Average family earns 1 million MNT per month

The first quarter result of the 2018 Household Socio-Economic Survey showed that the monthly average household income amounted to one million MNT, surging by 137,600 MNT (15.4 percent) compared with the same period of the previous year. It was mainly driven by higher wages, which increased by 52,300 MNT (10.4 percent) in the last quarter, and higher revenue from non-agricultural production and services, which rose by 26,600 MNT (38.7 percent).

As of April, the monthly average household real monetary income (eradicated price inflation impact) stood at 967,100 MNT, increasing by 73,800 MNT since April 2017.

The monthly average household monetary expenditure also went up by 12.6 percent to 1.1 million MNT. This increase was mainly driven by an increase of 96,400 MNT, or 13.8 percent, in non-food expenses and services and other expenditure.

Social insurance and welfare

The following are the key findings in the NSO report related to social insurance and welfare:

• The revenue of the Social Insurance Fund reached over 720 billion MNT in the last four months in Mongolia, which is an increase of 72.7 billion MNT and a whopping 11.2 percent compared to last year. It amounted to 190.6 billion MNT in April.
• The expenditure of the Social Insurance Fund amounted to 679.7 billion MNT, also rising by 78.1 billion MNT (13 percent) compared to last year. It amounted to 175.7 billion MNT in April.
• The revenue of the Health Insurance Fund saw a decline of 13.1 billion MNT (13.1 percent) while the Unemployment Insurance Fund revenue went down by 2.5 billion MNT (17.5 percent) since 2017.
• The expenditure of the Unemployment Insurance Fund decreased by three billion MNT (22.6 percent).
• Monthly cash allowances, also known as children’s money, was not distributed in April.

Birth rate increases in April

NSO reports that more babies were born in the first quarter of this year compared to the same period of last year.

Over 25,400 babies were born in the first quarter of 2016, over 22,790 babies in the first quarter of 2017, and this year, the number of newborn babies increased to 25,310, according to statistics. Infant mortality and under-five mortality, on the other hand, had increased by 3.1 percent and 4.3 percent respectively by April. Hospitals recorded 370 infant deaths and 440 deaths of children under the age of five. However, a slight improvement was seen in these indexes in April – infant mortality fell by two babies and under-five mortality by 108 children compared to April 2017.

NSO recorded 13,418 patients affected by communicable diseases, which is more than 3,000 patients lower than last year. Reportedly, patients affected by measles fell by 2,145 (62.7 percent), varicella patients by 1,415 (32.3 percent), trichomoniasis patients by 97 (six percent), and tuberculosis patients fell by 66 (five percent) compared to the same period of last year.

In April, five new HIV/AIDS cases were detected, making the total number of HIV/ AIDS cases in Ulaanbaatar 260.