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Unemployment pushes Armenian youth to leave country

4 June 2015 16:04 (UTC+04:00)
Unemployment pushes Armenian youth to leave country

By Sara Rajabova

Armenia’s unemployment plague is getting worse by the day and young people have suffered the brunt of it. With little to no expectation for a better future, many Armenians have chosen to try their chance elsewhere, away from their country, away from poverty.

A typical Armenian city, Gyumri is also suffering from a lack of job opportunity. The unemployment problem urges 40 percent of the young Gyumri residents to leave the country and look for better work prospects elsewhere, Armenian media reported.

The unemployment among youth in Gyumri, which holds the second highest rate in the country, is 52 percent and this issue for them became the most problematic. According to the study of youth problems in Gyumri, published by Gyumri Center for Youth Initiatives and Youth Council of Gyumri, young people have reached breaking point.

Some 76 percent of the 400 people who participated in the survey believe that the main problem of the city is unemployment.

As the second and third most important problems, Gyumri residents identified Armenia's difficult financial situation and migration, which are both linked to unemployment.

“An indicator of the increasing rate of migration is the fact that respondents do not associate their hope with their city.40 percent of respondents said they plan to leave the country. According to the other 40 percent, they will look for work in other cities of Armenia, especially in Yerevan,” the survey said.

Armenia’s unemployment rate in 2014 increased by 1.4 percentage points, reaching 17.6 percent, the recent reports said.

The rising tendency of unemployment among Armenia’s 2.9 million-population has become a pandemic problem which threatens to generate social dysfunction.

Some 76.400 people, of whom 53.300 are women and 18.300 representatives of the younger generation, were looking for work in Armenia as of March 1, 2015. Compared with the figure for the same period last year it increased by 19 percent, according to Armenia’s state employment agency.

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Sara Rajabova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @SaraRajabova

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