Wasted millions for combating unemployment

Unemployment still remains one of the most acute problems Georgia faces. The measures taken by the Rose administration were in vain however. The country’s administration implemented more than ten different programs, spending approximately 150 million GEL. One of the programs was retraining unemployed people in different private companies and employing them afterwards. However, this project failed even though more than 22 million was spent on it. Later, the economic development ministry initiated a program that provided professional vocational education to the unemployed. It envisaged the creation of special vocational centers for retraining personnel. However, it also yielded no viable results. The statistical observation shows that the situation was deteriorating. If in 2003 when the Rose Revolution took place, there were 235 000 unemployed people, in 2011 unemployment numbers reached 295 000. Overall, the number of unemployed was increasing. Before the elections on October 1, 2012, the then ruling national movement continued combating unemployment by creating a special ministry for employment. This step was taken for the reason of creating a pre-election mood of hope among the voters. The current PM Ivanishvili mocked this idea, saying that it is not the ministry that creates job, but business that create jobs.