Russia’s unemployment rate rose by 138,000 people in March to reach a total of 4.5 million, according to a report by the Rosstat state statistics service.
That level of unemployment equals 6 percent of the country's working population, the highest percentage recorded since January 2013, the Interfax news agency reported Tuesday.
In the first two months of this year and the last two months of 2015, the level of unemployment was 5.8 percent.
Russia’s economically active population in March stood at 76.1 million people, or 52 percent of the country’s general population, Interfax reported.