People have always concerned by the problems of employment. Only lazy people did not ask where to spend labor, but when the stimulus of labor - salary - became significant in a worldwide scale, the life lost its meaning without labor activity.
In its report on the global tendencies in the employment sphere, the World Labor Organization (WLO) stated that the crisis which resulted from mainly confusion in the credit market and increase in the oil prices may lead to 5mln increase of the number of unemployed people all over the world.
These new forecasts for 2008 sharply contrasts with the situation in 2007 when the 5% global GDP growth brought to stabilization in the global labor market, additional creation of nearly 45mln new jobs and only small increase of the number of unemployed people, whose number in the world reached 189.9mln.
With regards to Azerbaijan, the worldwide negative tendencies will not affect the host labor market. Just opposite, we will be observing involvement of unemployed people in the labor projects. The initiator for the high rates of the employment in Azerbaijan will be the large-scale pre-election campaign of the candidates for presidency in Azerbaijan in 2008. Only in Baku, the number of new jobs will total more than 30,000.
In addition, the Housing and Communal Department of the Executive Power of Baku City announced an open bid on the construction, accomplishment and repair of the buildings, parks and roads of Azerbaijan's capital.
The forecasts of Azerbaijan Government for the employment in 2008 show that the number of those involved in the economic sector of the country will increased by 1.54% as compared to 2007 (4,010,500) and made up 4,072,300.
Large part or nearly 40% (1.5mln people) of the labor-capable population in the country are being engaged in the sphere of agriculture. Existence of own land plots automatically brings them to the category employed people. However, the seasonal character of the earnings from the sale of the agricultural products makes the peasants to find permanent jobs with stable salary. After the immigration policy was toughened in Russia, most of them moved to Baku.
Another large sphere for the labor activities is the trade, repair of cars and appliances. In 2008 some 678,300 people will be involved in this sphere. The demand for the foodstuffs, luxuries and other essential commodities will cause growth in both proposals goods and number of people engaged in this sphere.
The third large sphere for employment is the educational employing nearly 340,000 people. Constructing new schools in the country requires new staffs in this sphere. The number of people involved in the education sphere is expected to make up 342,600 in 2008. The number of those engaged in the spheres of health and social services will increase from 182,500 people in 2007 to 184,500 people in 2008.
The reduction of workplaces is forecasted to take place in the sector of State governance and protection and social provision. In 2008 some 268,900 people will be involved in this sphere, a decrease of 0.8% from 2007. It is linked firstly with the reforms in the pension system and system of salary payment, when the payments will be made via cards. In addition, the economic growth in the country is expected to take place at the expense of private sector.
Additional workforces will be demanded in the industrial sector of the country. The forecasts of the government indicate that the annual 8.8% employment growth (from 200,900 to 218,600 people) is expected to take place in the processing industry while the growth in the extractive industry will be less - 1% (45,300 to 45,800) because the realization of the projects in the oil sector, especially development of oil fields of Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli and gas-condensate field of Shah Deniz. In addition, due to increase of oil production in the Caspian basin, in the next years, additional workforces will be demanded in the transportation of combustive-lubricating materials. Moreover, the production rate in the chemical industry is expected to be re-established.
The growth will also be continuing with regards to the construction where the indicator in 2008 will make up 225,900 people.
The biggest demand for the workforce will always be observed in the sphere of small and medium enterprises. Thus, in 2008 some 25,900 people will be involved in the restaurant and hotel business and 207,600 people - the transport, warehousing and communications. The government pays a special attention to the realization of tourism projects because the flow of the tourists will give a boost to the development of the service sector.
However, despite the forecasted growth of the new jobs this year, the number of those having unemployed status will also increase by 34.2% (from 50,600 to 67,900). The ratio of the number of unemployed and economically engaged population will increase up to 1.64%. This figure reflects only the number of officially registered unemployed, but according to the experts, the real number of the unemployed people is more and therefore, it is difficult to assess the scale of work needed to be done.
The Director General of the ILO, Juan Somavia, said that this year the global map of the employment differs with large contrasts and uncertainty. Despite that the economic growth brings to creation of millions of new jobs, the level of the unemployment still remains high and may reach fantastic level this year.
In addition, this year will be concluding in accounting the results of the labor establishment in the country. During pre-election campaign five years ago the President of Azerbaijan promised to open 600,000 new jobs in the coming five years. The official statistics for the labor establishment were published for four years: from 1 October 2003 to 1 October 2007. Thus, according to these data, during the reported period, 610,754 new jobs, with 432,000 permanent, were opened as a result of realization of the regional social-economic development programs in Azerbaijan. Some 82% of the newly created jobs fell on the regions:
Large responsibility and key load in realizing these measures fell on the private sector. According to the statistics, some 865 of the new workplaces were opened in the private sector. Key share (13%) of the new jobs in the non-oil sector fell on agriculture, hunting and forestry economy, 9.2% - processing industry, 9.2% trade and repair, 7.9% - construction, 2.7% - lease and real estate, 2.1% - State governance and social protection, 1.5% - transport, warehousing and communications, 21% - new enterprises, 34.3% - existing enterprises and organizations, 4% - enterprises which re-established their activities.
The labor fairs being organized by Azerbaijan's Ministry of Labor and Social Protection play a great role in resolving the problem with employment in Azerbaijan. In 2004 some 6185 people were employed, 2005 - 4500 people, 2006 - 7842 and 2007 more than 8,000.
However, the unemployment still remains as an urgent issue. Currently the official level of the unemployment makes up 6.6%.