Mongolia - Working conditions

Since the abandonment of state guarantees of employment in 1993, the unemployment rate among Mongolia's workforce of 1.256 million has been rising, reaching an official rate of 4.5 percent in 1998. In 1998, there were 49,800 workers registered as unemployed, but some estimates put the figure as high as 200,000, especially in remote small towns and villages. Working conditions remain far from ideal because of low wages and harsh economic conditions. Until the 1990s, the trade-union movement was state-controlled; with the introduction of market-oriented reforms Mongolia's trade unions have struggled to gain membership, though they still maintain close affiliations with political parties.