Social sector in Azerbaijan (January-October 2016)

Source: State Statistics Committee

The population’s income after paying all required fees and membership fees made up 33.30 billion manat, which is 9.1 percent more than in January-October 2015. Real income per capita increased by 7.9 percent to 3458,9 manat.

During the reporting period, the country’s population spent 78.9 percent of personal income on consumer purposes, 9.1 percent - tax, insurance and membership contributions, 2.6 percent - payment of loan debts, while 9.4 percent remained in the form of savings.

The population’s expenditure amounted to 33,191.9 million manat in January-October 2016 or 3,443.9 million manat less than the income of the population but by 11.9 percent more than expenditure of the population for January-October 2015 (according to the Azerbaijani State Statistics Committee, Trend’s calculations).

The gap in income and expenditure of the population in favor of income testifies to the growth of material well-being of Azerbaijani citizens. The differentiation in the population's income and the availability of the Gini coefficient in the country should be taken into account.

Salary

The salary is one of the key social and economic indicators, which sufficiently enough characterizes the level of the prosperity of the working part of the population. According to the Azerbaijani State Statistics Committee, the average monthly salary in Azerbaijan in January-September 2016 increased by 6.2 percent from year to year and reached 490.5 manat, which is by 29.4 manat more than in January-September 2015 (461.1 manat) and 1.8 manat more than the previous month (488.7 manat).

Remuneration in the oil sector reached 2652,7 manat for the month, the non-oil sector – 439,1 manat, the public sector – 370,2 manat, the private sector – 661,8 manat as of October 1, 2016.

The highest salary was observed in the mining industry, financial, information and communication, scientific and technical activity, as well as the construction sectors.

The average salary of industrial workers in January-September increased by 13.2 percent and reached 872.9 manat compared to the same period of 2015. In particular, salary of those involved in the mining industry increased by 27.7 percent, processing industry - by six percent. Salary in the electric power sector, gas and steam distribution and supply decreased by 1.2 percent, the water sector, waste processing decreased by 3.9 percent. The main reason for an increase in salary of those working in the mining industry is associated with an equivalent increase in salary of foreigners working at the enterprises with foreign capital due to the devaluation of the national currency.

Around 96,600 people were involved in the Azerbaijani construction sector in January-September 2016. The average monthly salary in the construction sector amounted to 805.4 manat, which is 2.1 percent less than in the same period of 2015.

The salary increased by 14.4 percent up to an average of 611.8 manat in the construction of buildings, specialized construction - by 26.1 percent in January-September 2016 compared to the same period of 2015.

Labor market

As of November 1, 2016, the economically active population reached 4.99 million people, of which 4.73 million people were engaged in labour activity.

Thus, as of October 1, 2016, the number of hired employees exceeded 1.52 million people, including 886,700 people worked in the state sector, and 629,700 people - in private sector.

Some 34,300 people work in the oil sector, while 1.48 million people in the non-oil sector.

Around 22.5 percent fall to the hired employees involved in the production spheres: 6.5 percent in construction, 6.9 percent in manufacturing industry, 3.1 percent in agriculture, forestry and fishing, 2.2 percent - in the mining industry, 2 percent - water supply, waste recycling, 1.8 percent - in the production and distribution of electricity, gas and steam, 22 percent in education, 18.9 percent - trade, repair of vehicles, 8.8 percent - medical and social services, 7 percent in state governance and defense, social maintenance, 4.6 percent - transportation and warehousing, 3.7 percent - recreation, entertainment and arts, 3.7 percent – professional, scientific and technical activities, 1.6 percent - communication and information, 1.7 percent - financial and insurance activities, 1.2 percent - real estate transactions, 1.6 percent - administrative and additional services, 1.5 percent – tourist accommodation and catering and 1.1 percent - other areas.

As of November 1, 2016, some 33,700 people were officially registered as unemployed in Azerbaijan, including 37.9 percent women, the Azerbaijani State Statistics Committee’s report said.

According to the report, the number of unemployed increased by 16.2 percent in the country compared to the same period of 2015.

In particular, some 2,700 people appealed to the employment centers after the banks and currency exchange offices closed in the country. The unemployment benefits were assigned for those people.

The average monthly unemployment benefit in Azerbaijan is 241.9 manat.

Distribution of unemployed individuals and those who receive unemployment benefit in towns and regions as of November 1, 2016 (people):

According to the Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare, despite much work has been recently conducted in Azerbaijan to reduce the unemployment rate [this figure dropped to 5 percent and up to 13.4 percent among the youth in 2015], this index increased as a result of the changes in the global economy, financial crisis, the fall in oil prices.

Some 190,000 people appealed to the employment service during 10 months of 2016, 53,000 of them were provided with jobs.

The government is trying to deal with rising unemployment rate by creating new jobs. The work has been carried out together with state-owned companies to reduce unemployment rate since early 2016. So, more than 18,000 people were provided with jobs.

Some 339,200 contracts of employment were concluded and 312,600 contracts were terminated for ten months.

Some 4.4 percent of the contracts were mainly terminated because the enterprises were closed and staff reduced.

The global crisis has had a serious negative effect on the construction sector.

The employment contracts concluded with about 4,000 people working in the construction sector and more than 2,000 people working in the banking and insurance sectors were terminated in January-October 2016.

Provision of pensions

According to the Azerbaijani Ministry of Labor and Social Protection, as of November 1, 2016, there are 1,312 million pensioners in the country.

The average retirement pension, which has increased by 7.6 percent since early 2016, amounted to 191.15 manat, and the age pension - 212.50 manat.

The State Social Protection Fund finances the timely pension payments. The pensions were paid ahead of time in November.

The revenues of the State Social Protection Fund amounted to 2,631.08 million manat (a 8.24 percent increase year on year) in January-October.

The compulsory social insurance contributions increased by 5.55 percent to 1,533.69 million manat. The income from non-oil sector increased by 4.5 percent to 984.86 million manat.