Social sector in Azerbaijan (January-November 2016)

Source: State Statistics Committee

The population’s income after paying all required fees and membership fees made up 36.38 billion manat, which is 9.1 percent more than in January-November 2015. Real income per capita increased by 7.8 percent to 3776,3 manat.

During the reporting period, the country’s population spent 79.4 percent of personal income on consumer purposes, 9.1 percent - tax, insurance and membership contributions, 2.6 percent - payment of loan debts, while 8.9 percent remained in the form of savings.

The population’s expenditure amounted to 36,465.9 million manat in January-November 2016 or 3,562.6 million manat less than the income of the population but by 8.7 percent more than expenditure of the population for January-November 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-October 2016 increased by 6.9 percent from year to year and reached 493.8 manat, which is by 31.8 manat more than in January-October 2015 (462 manat) and 3.3 manat more than the previous month (490.5 manat).

Remuneration in the oil sector reached 2770 manat for the month, the non-oil sector – 439.8 manat, the public sector – 371 manat, the private sector – 668.9 manat as of November 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.

Around 96,200 people were involved in the Azerbaijani construction sector in January-October 2016. The average monthly salary in the construction sector amounted to 809 manat, which is 20.4 percent more than in the same period of 2015.

The salary increased by 15.4 percent in the sphere of building construction, while by 25.3 percent – in the specialized construction in January-October 2016 compared to the same period of 2015.

Labor market

As of December 1, 2016, the economically active population reached 5.01 million people, of which 4.73 million people were engaged in labour activity.

Thus, as of November 1, 2016, the number of hired employees exceeded 1.51 million people, including 888,400 people worked in the state sector, and 625,300 people - in private sector.

Some 34,500 people work in the oil sector, while 1.47 million people in the non-oil sector.

Around 22.3 percent fall to the hired employees involved in the production spheres: 6.1 percent in construction, 7 percent in manufacturing industry, 3.1 percent in agriculture, forestry and fishing, 2.3 percent - in the mining industry, 2 percent - water supply, waste recycling, 1.8 percent - in the production and distribution of electricity, gas and steam, 22.1 percent in education, 19 percent - trade, repair of vehicles, 8.8 percent - medical and social services, 7.1 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 December 1, 2016, some 33,400 people were officially registered as unemployed in Azerbaijan, including 38 percent women, the Azerbaijani State Statistics Committee’s report said.

According to the report, the number of unemployed increased by 15.2 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 243.4 manat.

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

According to the Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare, despite much has been recently done in Azerbaijan to reduce the unemployment rate [this figure dropped up 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.