The FINANCIAL — According to Kate Patsatsia, Project Coordinator, Future Without Poverty, as of February-March 2008, 220 thousand people received GEL 200 scholarships, which totalled GEL 44,000,000. The third stage of the Presidential Program started on April 5, 2008 and will continue for a month.
On May 1, 2008, the Association of young Economists of Georgia (AYEG) made a presentation of the publication Employment Programs in Georgia at the Tbilisi Marriot Hotel. The report was developed based on the investigation results made within the framework of the project Future Without Poverty.
According to the Statistics Department of Georgia, the Georgian population in 1998 was 4.5049 million. Out of this the active population (labour force) amounted to 2.076 million. In 2006 the population of Georgia had reduced to 4.4013 million and accordingly the active population dropped by 1%.
“The unemployment level on the labour market fluctuates between 15 and 16%,” said Facacia.
“The AYEG publication Employment Programs in Georgia is analysis combined with various types of investigation results conducted within the terms of official data and project, it describes employment program results in Georgia, unemployment problems on the labour market and future provokes,” Anna Qatamidze, President of the board of AYEG, told The FINANCIAL.
The Association of young Economists of Georgia (AYEG) is a non-profit, non-political, non- governmental organization. The Association of Young Economists of Georgia is dedicated to supporting the development of civil society, promoting democracy and cooperating with partner organizations, institutions and the private sector in order to contribute to community advance.
Within the framework of the project in order to estimate the state employment program of 2007-2008 a quantitative investigation was pursued throughout Georgia. 1,001 enterprises were interviewed. Focus-groups and an employers quantitative investigation were made in the Imereti Region (Selection range: 600 organizations).
The investigations conducted by AYEG showed that private business is developing in Georgia and requirements of the labour market on experienced personnel is increasing accordingly. However, unemployment is still a critical problem.
The main barrier that employers face is the estimation of professional skill of potential personnel. Professionalism is a problem both in the technical and management field. It is almost impossible to find and employ a person of the required qualifications and skills. There is also very bad communication between the employers and job-finders.
“1,001 enterprises were interviewed to define how effective the state employment program. It showed that only 10% of the employees hold long-term employment. It means that the majority is only temporarily employed. When we talk about employment and reduction of poverty in the country, what’s very important is long-term employment and the creation of stable jobs,” stated Qatamidze.
In her words, it is necessary to establish a common employment agency that will provide the best communication between the employer and the job-finder. It is very important to investigate the labour market to find out what the most required vacancies and professions are.
“The Georgian Employment Program effected poverty figures. Some families had temporary incomes but for a certain period. Investigation showed that some of those families do not consider themselves employed, but thought that it was merely assistance from the government,” said Grigol Pantsulaia, Chairman of the Statistics Department.
“The poverty figure for 2006 was 3.2; compared to the year 2005 it had reduced by 2.4%,” he added.
According to the publication Employment Programs, in 2006 in Georgia most employees worked in the private sector. Compared to 1998 the number of employees has been reduced in the state sector.
The top level of unemployment made up 16.5% in 1998 and the lowest level – 14.1% in 2003; it was 16.1% in 2005 and fell down by 0.4% in 2006.
As for the second quarter of 2007 the total number of employment is divided as follows according to the regions: Tbilisi – 56.4%; Imereti – 10.7%; Adjara – 8.03%; Kvemo Kartli – 6.6%; Samegrelo-Zemo Svaneti – 5.7%.
Investigations in the most interviewed organizations showed that the age of employment fluctuates between 31 and 50.
44% of the employers choose their applicants from their close relations and 17% take into consideration the references of their friends. Only 16% give priority to making their vacancies public.
417 people were employed by the enterprises interviewed by the employment program 2006, though only 7% of the employed have kept on working.
“In 2006 the State Employment Program failed to have good results and was for mostly formal purposes. People could not raise the level of their skills, they got only subsidies and after 3 months they were again left without jobs,” said one of the participants of the State Employment Program.
In 2006-2007 Tbilisi Municipality conducted the Youth Employment Program involving 5,000 students.
The government chose Procredit Bank through the tender as the partner of Employment Program 2007 allocating the credit resource to the amount of 5 million to finance the small enterprises operating in the tourism business.
The amount of released credit increased from GEL 1,000 to GEL 50,000 in a term of 5 years with 12% interest rate.
The Central Intelligence Agency estimated the world’s unemployment level for 2007, as 30%.
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