Georgia: unemployment down in 2019
The unemployment rate in Georgia decreased by 1.1% YoY, to 11.6% in 2019, saids the National Statistics Office of Georgia (Geostat).
Last year the economically active population constituted 62.9% of the working age population (population aged 15 and older).
“In comparison to the previous year, the economic activity rate decreased by 1%, while the employment rate also decreased by 0.2%”, said Geostat.
In urban settlements the employment rate increased by 0.2% compared to 2018, while in rural settlements it decreased by 0.7%.
Meanwhile, the unemployment rate is much lower in rural areas than in urban settlements, said Geostat. Compared to 2018 the unemployment rate decreased both in urban and rural settlements by 1.8% and 0.3%, respectively.
The unemployment rate increased only in Guria (+0.8%) and Kakheti (+0.1%) regions of Georgia. In the capital city of Tbilisi, where the unemployment rate is the highest, this indicator was decreased by 1.1%.
The largest decrease was observed in Shida Kartli (-3%) and Samegrelo-Zemo Svaneti (-2.1%) regions.
Geostat said that traditionally, the unemployment rate was higher in men than in women.
“In 2019, compared to the previous year, this indicator decreased by 1.1% for women as well as for men and amounted to 10.1% and 12.8%, respectively”, said Geostat.
In 2019, the employment rate for women decreased by 0.3% compared to 2018, while for men by 0.1%.
Last year the share of hired employees among employed persons was 50.3%, down by 0.5%.
“It should be noted that the number of hired employees has exceeded the number of self-employed persons for the last two years”, said Geostat.
In 2019, the highest rate of unemployment was still in the age group of 20-24 years (30.5%), while this indicator was traditionally the lowest in the 65+ age group (2.4%), mainly caused by the high rate of inactivity in this age group, said Geostat.
In addition, the unemployment rate decreased by 0.4% for women and by 1.1% for men compared to the corresponding period of the previous year. (Agenda/Business World Magazine)