BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 18
By Tamilla Mammadova - Trend:
The unemployment rate in Georgia decreased by 1.1 percentage points in 2019 compared to 2018 and amounted to 11.6 percent, Trend reports with reference to the National Statistics Office of Georgia (Geostat).
The downtrend in the unemployment rate is maintained during the last ten years in Georgia.
In 2019, the economically active population constituted 62.9 percent of the working age population (population of 15 years and older).
Compared to 2018, the economic activity rate as well as the unemployment rate decreased by 1 and 0.2 percentage points respectively.
In 2019, in urban areas the employment rate increased by 0.2 percentage point compared to the previous year, while in rural areas it decreased by 0.7 percentage point. The economic activity rate decreased by 1 percentage point in both urban and rural areas.
In 2019, the share of hired employees among employed persons was 50.3 percent, having decreased by 0.5 percentage point compared to the previous year. The number of hired employees has exceeded the number of self-employed persons for the last two years.
The unemployment rate is much lower in rural than in urban settlements. In 2019, compared to the previous year, the unemployment rate decreased both in urban and rural settlements by 1.8 and 0.3 percentage points, respectively.
In the reporting period, compared to the previous year, the unemployment rate was increased only in Guria and Kakheti regions by 0.8 and 0.1 percentage points, respectively.
In Tbilisi, where the unemployment rate is the highest, this indicator decreased by 1.1 percentage point.
The largest decrease was observed in Shida Kartli and Samegrelo-Zemo Svaneti regions, by 3 and 2.1 percentage points respectively.
In Georgia, unemployment rate is higher for men than for women.
In 2019, compared to the previous year, this indicator decreased by 1.1 percentage point for women as well as for men and amounted to 10.1 and 12.8 percent, respectively.
The activity rate is relatively high for men. In 2019, the activity rate for women was 54.5 percent and for men - 72.6 percent. In 2019, activity rate for women decreased by 1.1 percentage point and by 1 percentage point for men, compared to 2018.
In the reporting period, the employment rate for women decreased by 0.3 percentage point compared to 2018, while for men by 0.1 percentage point.
The highest rate of unemployment is still in the age group of 20-24 years (30.5 percent), while this indicator is traditionally the lowest in the 65+ age group (2.4 percent) that is mainly caused by the high rate of inactivity in this age group.
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