Just having a source of income is
not enough, as many people in the country are realizing. Some 50% of Mongolians
earn too low wages to lead a comfortable life and the Government has no policy
to help these 60,000 households rise above the poverty line. Unemployment is increasing
year by year and some MPs have said there are between 300,000 and 400,000
people now without jobs.

A survey has found 61% of the
population will be of the working age in 2025. Adequately paid jobs have to be
found for them, or the economy may very well collapse under the burden of welfare
allowances. At the same time, wages have to be productivity-based. If State
service salaries and pensions are increased a lot, the private sector may have serious
problems with finding enough properly qualified employees.

Parliament discussed all these
issues on December 25. The Minister of Social Welfare and Labor reported that
the percentage of working-age population rose from 48.5% in 2007 to 66.5% at
the end of 2009, while the number of those working stood at 1 million and
155,000 or 44% of the population. Of them 160,000 are state employees and the
rest work in the private sector. MPs said they are besieged with requests for a
job in a state organization because of the high salary, less work and other benefits.
Another reason is that the Government has done little to encourage the private
sector to prosper and job security there continues to be low.

The two-year program to develop
small and medium enterprises has seen MNT30 billion disbursed as loan in 2009 and
2010. Difficult collateral conditions did not allow many to avail themselves of
the loan but repayment has been 98%, and 6,000 jobs have been created.

Of course, the big projects that
would improve people’s life are still to take off. These include Oyutolgoi,
Tavantolgoi and New Construction. The last could not be started in the second
half of 2010 as the necessary capital of MNT18.2 trillion would come from the
mining revenues. Income from Oyutolgoi and Tavantolgoi will also pay for the
payment of the monthly allowance of MNT21,000 to every citizen and to build  1000 km of railway.

The Government keeps saying that
mining extension, new railway construction, 100,000 apartments building
program, the auto road network linking aimags and such national projects will
generate between 40,000 and 60,000 new jobs. Unfortunately, for the people who
hope to get these jobs, everything so far has been just promises.