MOSCOW, September 10 (RIA Novosti) - Russians will not face mass redundancies this fall, with unemployment figures expected to rise only slightly more than the usual seasonal increase, the labor service said on Thursday.

The Health and Social Development Ministry said on Monday that the number of jobless fell 0.7% to 2.1 million in the week from August 26 to September 2.

"There will not be mass redundancies, as there were in January, February, and March," Yury Gertsy said in an interview with the Rossiiskaya Gazeta government paper.

Citing data from the national online employment service, Rabota v Rossii (Jobs in Russia), Gertsy said there were 975,147 job vacancies as of Thursday morning, of which he said offers for manual workers accounted for some 73%.