Azerbaijani Youth Promised Decent Jobs

Baku / 22.05.18 / Turan: On May 21, a conference was held in Baku, entitled "Towards Sustainable Development: Promoting Sustainable Development and Decent Work" and organized by the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection together with the Confederation of Trade Unions of Azerbaijan, the National Confederation of Entrepreneurs' Organizations and the International Labor Organization (ILO).

High-ranking representatives of the Azerbaijani government, Milli Majlis deputies and experts from relevant international organizations, including ILO Director General Guy Ryder attended the forum, which met with President Ilham Aliyev.

Speaking at the conference, Deputy Prime Minister Ali Ahmedov noted that 46% of the population of Azerbaijan is people under the age of 29 years. Youth employment is an urgent problem, the solution of which requires an integrated approach. Over the past 15 years, 1.9 million new jobs have been created in the country. This makes up 40% of the economically active population.

"The population of the country annually increases by 1.1-1.2%. This means that about 100,000 young people seeking work enter the labor market. Therefore, at least 100,000 new jobs must be opened in Azerbaijan every year. More than 45% of the population lives in rural areas and is engaged in agriculture," Ahmedov said.

The Minister of Labor and Social Protection Sahil Babayev in his speech touched on the situation with employment and the problem of informal employment. According to him, over the past years the country has made significant progress in optimizing the labor market and improving the social well-being of people. The minimum wage has increased 5.2 times, and the average wage has grown 6.6 times. The poverty level in the country has decreased from 49% to 5%. In addition, the unemployment rate has also been reduced to 5%. During this period over 230 billion US dollars, about half of which came from foreign investments, was invested in the national economy.

Babayev said the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection will continue to struggle against informal employment, work to further improve the social welfare of the country's population, and create new jobs.

Commenting on the current situation in the domestic labor market for Turan IA, the chairman of the League for the Protection of Workers' Rights Sahib Mammadov said independent studies showed that more than 1.5 million people in Azerbaijan work illegally, i.e., without labor contracts. According to official figures, the economically active population is 4.9 million people. The rest of the employed are workers in the budgetary sphere, self-employed citizens who have an individual business and citizens who have entered into a civil law contract with the employer.

According to the expert, the most common areas in which illegal work is widely used are construction, trade, and consumer services. There are also people working at home, such as nannies, cleaners, drivers, personal guards, gardeners, etc. Despite the fact that several years ago a system of electronic labor contracts was introduced in the country, the situation with informal employment has changed little. Employers do not want to take employees out of the shadow of employees hired by them, legalize financial documents and pay taxes and social insurance contributions. But the trouble is that the workers themselves do not particularly protest against this practice and are forced to agree with the conditions of the employers. -0-