2018 Data Shows Unemployment Rate in Georgia Dropped by 1.2%

The annual unemployment rate in Georgia decreased by 1.2% to 12.7% in 2018, according to the National Statistics Office of Georgia (Geostat).

Geostat reports that in 2018, the economically active population amounted to 63.9% of the working age population and, compared to 2017, the economic activity rate and employment rate decreased by 1.9 and 0.9 percentage points respectively.

“In urban areas, the employment rate increased by 1.2 percentage points compared to the previous year, while in rural areas it decreased by 3.4 percentage points. In the urban areas, the economic activity rate decreased by 1.0 percentage points compared to the previous year, and in rural areas by 3.1 percentage points,” the report reads.

The unemployment rate is much lower in rural than in urban settlements. In 2018, the unemployment rate in urban settlements decreased by 3.5 percentage points compared to the previous year, while in rural settlements it increased by 0.7 percentage points.

In 2018, the unemployment rate decreased in Tbilisi, Ajara, Imereti and Guria regions compared to the previous year. In the capital Tbilisi, where the unemployment rate was the highest, this indicator decreased by 5.9% while in Ajara and Imereti region by 1.8 and 1.6% respectively.

The unemployment rate was high in the Samegrelo-Zemo Svaneti and Mtskheta-Mtianeti regions (at 3.3 and 1.9% respectively).

Over the last 10 years, the highest unemployment rate was observed in 2009- 18.3%. A year after the 2008 Georgian-Russian August war, the unemployment rate was 17.9%. According to the statistics, in 2008-2018, the unemployment rate decreased by 5.2%.

Last year, the share of hired employees was 50.8% among employed persons, having increased by 2.5 percentage points compared to the previous year.

“The down-trend in self-employment has been maintained during the last five years. In 2018, the number of hired employees exceeded the number of self-employed persons for the first time,” Geostat says.

The statistics show that, traditionally, the unemployment rate is higher for men than for women. Last year, this indicator was 2.7 times higher for men compared to the corresponding indicator for women.

In addition, in 2018, the unemployment indicator decreased by 1.5% for women and by 1.1% for men compared to 2017. The activity rate is relatively high for men: for women it was 55.6% and for men 73.6 %. In 2018, the activity rate for women decreased by 2.6 % and by 1.0 % for men compared to the previous year.

The agency says that in 2018, the employment rate for women decreased by 1.5 percentage points compared to 2017, while for men it remained the same.

As usual, in 2018, the highest rate of unemployment was within the age group of 20-24 years (30.8%) while this indicator is typically the lowest in the 65+ age group.

By Thea Morrison

Image source: Pro Bono Australia