Geostat: the unemployment rate decreased by 1.2% in 2018

The National Statistics Office of Georgia (Geostat) has released its data of the last year, according to which the unemployment rate decreased by 1.2% compared to 2017 and stood at 12.7%.

According to the report, last year economically active population amounted to 63.9 percent of the working age population and compared to 2017, the economic activity rate and the employment rate were decreased by 1.9 and 0.9 percentage points respectively.

In urban areas, the employment rate was increased by 1.2 percentage point compared to the previous year, while in rural areas it was decreased by 3.4 percentage point. In the urban areas, the economic activity rate was reduced by 1.0 percentage point compared to the previous year, while in rural areas – by 3.1 percentage point.

The unemployment rate during the recent years looks as follows: 2008 – 17.9%, 2009 – 18.3%, 2010 – 17.4%, 2011 -17.3%, 2012 -17.2%, 2013 -16.9%, 2014 -14.6%, 2015 -14.1%, 2016 -14.0%, 2017 -13.9% and 2018 – 12.7%.

“In 2018, the share of hired employees was 50.8 percent among employed persons that is increased by 2.5 percentage point compared to the previous year. The downtrend in self-employment is maintained during the last five years. In 2018 number of hired employees exceeded the number of self-employed persons for the first time,” Geostat reports.

The report shows that the unemployment rate is much lower in rural than in urban settlements. In 2018, the unemployment rate in urban settlements was decreased by 3.5 percentage points compared to the previous year, while in rural settlements it was increased by 0.7 percentage points.

Speaking about the unemployment rate in each region, in 2018 the unemployment rate was increased in Tbilisi, Adjara, Imereti and Guria regions compared to 2017.

“In Tbilisi, where the unemployment rate was the highest, this indicator was decreased by 5.9 percentage point, while in Achara A/R and Imereti region – by 1.8 and 1.6 percentage points respectively. The unemployment rate was mostly increased in Samegrelo-Zemo Svaneti and Mtskheta-Mtianeti regions by 3.3 and 1.9 percentage points respectively,” the data read.

Just like in previous years, the unemployment rate is higher for men than for women. In 2018, this indicator was 2.7 percentage points higher for men compared to the corresponding indicator for women. Besides, in 2018, this indicator was decreased by 1.5 percentage point for women and by 1.1 percentage point for men compared to 2017.

As for the activity rate, it is relatively high for men. In 2018, activity rate for women was 55.6 percent and for men - 73.6 percent. In 2018, activity rate for women was decreased by 2.6 percentage point and by 1.0 percentage point for men compared to 2017.

“In 2018, the employment rate for women was decreased by 1.5 percentage point compared to 2017, while for men it remained the same,” Geostat says.

Analysis of the results by age groups shows that in 2018 the highest rate of unemployment is still in the age group of 20-24 years (30.8 percent), while this indicator is traditionally the lowest in the 65+ age group that is mainly caused by the high rate of inactivity in this age group.