Azernews.Az

Nazrin Abdul

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Expanding women’s participation in the labour market and broadening employment opportunities remain key priorities of Azerbaijan’s state employment policy. As part of these ongoing efforts, the State Employment Agency under the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection of the Population helped secure suitable jobs for 69,500 women in 2025.

According to AzerNEWS, citing information provided by the Ministry’s public relations department to AzerTag, the state news agency, the self-employment programme, which carries significant socio-economic value, has also enabled unemployed and job-seeking women to establish small businesses. Over the past year, more than 6,500 women received assets under the programme, allowing them to set up small family enterprises.

Another important active labour market initiative focuses on vocational training designed to meet current labour market demands. Last year, the State Employment Agency enrolled 18,400 unemployed and job-seeking individuals in vocational training programmes, 11,800 of whom were women.

In recent years, improvements to Azerbaijan’s labour legislation concerning women’s employment have aimed to expand job opportunities and strengthen their role in the workforce. Reforms undertaken in this area were highlighted as a positive example during the 2025 Spring Meetings of the World Bank Group and the International Monetary Fund.

Moreover, in the 2024 edition of the Women, Business and the Law report by the World Bank, Azerbaijan improved its score from 78.8 to 85, climbing 35 positions from 104th to 69th place among 190 countries.