Unemployment and Employment Rate in 2019 Q1
Georgia’s National Statistics Office (Geostat) has released the Unemployment and Employment report of Quarter (Q)1, 2019.
The statistics read that in Q1 2019 the unemployment rate in Georgia decreased by 1.2% compared to the similar period of the previous year and equaled 12.8%.
The agency said that this year the economically active population constituted 63.8% of the working-age population aged 15 and older. Compared to the same quarter of the previous year, the economic activity rate remained the same, while the employment rate increased by 0.8%.
In urban settlements, the employment rate increased by 2.0 % compared to the corresponding period of the previous year, while in rural settlements it decreased by 1.1%. In urban settlements, the economic activity rate was increased by 0.6% compared to the corresponding period of the previous year, while in rural settlements it decreased by 1.0 %.
“In Q1 2019, the share of hired employees was 50.3% among employed persons that is increased by 0.9 percentage points compared to the corresponding period of the previous year,” the agency reports.
The unemployment rate is much lower in rural than in urban settlements. In Q1 2019, the unemployment rate in urban settlements was reduced by 2.6%compared to the corresponding period of the previous year, while in urban settlements increased by 0.2%.
As in the 2018 year, traditionally, the unemployment rate is higher for men than for women in Q1 2019 too. The indicator was 3.9% higher for men compared to the corresponding indicator for women. In addition, the unemployment rate decreased by 1.6% for women and by 0.9 % for men compared to the same period of 2018.
However, the activity rate is higher for men than for women. In the Q1 2019 activity rate for women was 55.5% and for men - 73.5%. The activity rate for women was increased by 0.6 % while for men it was decreased by 0.6 % compared to the previous year.
In the I Quarter of the 2019 year the employment rate for women was increased by 1.4 and by 0.2 % for men compared to the corresponding period of the previous year.
By Thea Morrison