The number of jobless people in Russia rose by 1.8 million in the first quarter of this year to 7. 107 million amid the ongoing financial crisis, Russia's Federal State Statistics Service (Rosstat) said on Monday.

"The total number of jobless, classed according to International Labor Organization standards, was 7.1 million people, or 9.5 percent of the economically active population," the RIA Novosti news agency quoted the Rosstat as saying.

The figure has already exceeded the government's unemployment forecast of about 7 million for 2009, the RIA Novosti noted.

Only 2.2 million people were however officially registered as unemployed.

Russian Health and Social Development Minister, Tatiana Golikova, said on April 14 that the government plans to assign some 43.7 billion rubles for employment purposes, of which 23 billion rubles have already been spent, the Itar-Tass news agency reported.