Article is devoted to studying of unemployment as a negative social and economic phenomenon in the life of a society. As the growth of the given parameter conducts to the shortage of produce. The structure of the unemployed according to the sex both in Grodno region, and across Belarus specifies prevalence of ‘female’ unemployment. A problem there is employment of youth. The disturbing tendency is traced at studying the structure of the age of the unemployed: the greatest share of the unemployed falls at the most productive age of 20-29 and 30-49 years. In the small regional centers the rate of unemployment is higher than in the large cities. This is connected with an absence of workplaces, backwardness of the real sector of economy, a weak level of development of social services. Therefore the state policy of employment aspires to provide equal opportunities to all physically fit citizens of Belarus, gives social guarantees and indemnifications to the unemployed, etc.