Unemployment rate in Azerbaijan expected to drop to 4pct

By Narmina Mammadova

By 2030, there are plans to reduce the unemployment rate to 4 percent in Azerbaijan, as well as to bring the unemployment rate among women and youth to a minimum, according to the Employment Strategy of Azerbaijan for 2019-2030.

The unemployment rate in Azerbaijan in 2017 was 5 percent, the unemployment among women was 5.9 percent, among young people aged 15-24 - 12.9 percent, among young people aged 15-29 - 9.2 percent.

In addition, by 2030, it is planned to bring the share of the people officially working in Azerbaijan and not employed in agriculture to 80 percent.

In 2017, the ratio of employees not engaged in the agriculture sphere was 48.1 percent.

By 2030, there are plans to reduce the share of young people (aged 15-24) not enrolled in the labor market or without education to 15 percent, and also to achieve effective employment and decent work for all groups of the population (especially young people, women and the disabled) by 2025.

In addition, until 2030, the level of employment of citizens who applied to the employment agencies will be brought to 70 percent. Also, the number of regional vocational training centers will increase to ten.

According to the data of August 1 of this year, there are 5,120.8 economically active people in Azerbaijan, of which 4,869.2 were employed.

As for August 1, 2018, the number of persons who received the status of unemployed by the country's employment agencies was 36,100, of which 37.1 percent were women. The average amount of unemployment benefits and unemployment insurance amounted to 273.9 manats.

The "Employment Strategy of Azerbaijan for 2019-2030" notes that, according to the UN forecast, the population of Azerbaijan will continue to grow in the coming years and in 2030 will reach 10.7 million people.

On the basis of projections for the age structure of the population, it has been established that in subsequent years the natural increase of the population of the country will decline relatively. This will lead to a decrease after 2025 of the proportion of persons up to 15 years. It is projected that the number of people who have reached retirement age will double by 2030 compared with 2015 (841,000 people), which may create a need for additional measures in the social security of the elderly.

The document states that in 2017, the population at the age of 15-64 was more than seven million people.

Projections suggest that this figure until 2025, one might say, will not change, but in the next five years will increase by 1.3 percent. It is predicted that in Azerbaijan until 2025, the tendency of a decrease in the number of people aged 15-24 will continue, but in the next five years their number will increase. Until 2025, the number of people aged 20–25 will continue to decline, but in the next five years their number will also increase.

Despite the fact that in 2017, the number of people aged 15-24 in Azerbaijan was about 1.5 million, in 2025 it will be less than 17 percent of the current number, in the following years this figure will increase and reach the level of 2015 year (1.6 million), the strategy says.

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