The number of unemployed increased in Azerbaijan

Baku/18.04.17/Turan: Under the auspices of Transparency Azerbaijan and USAID, a roundtable on "Raising the level of employment of the Azerbaijani population" was held in Baku on April 18.

The event was attended by representatives of various ministries, the private sector and NGOs.

"Last year, employment centers gave 11,010 citizens the status of employees of state bodies, 11552 people were assigned unemployment benefits.

The reason for this was the global economic crisis, which began in late 2015. A number of banks closed in Azerbaijan, in the financial sphere there were cutbacks. For people in this category, there were no jobs in the labor market. Therefore, the number of unemployment benefits has grown approximately by three times," said Elchin Salimov, representative of the State Employment Service.

E.Salimov

In addition, there was a decrease in the scope of vocational training courses (3,352 people) and community work (1,740 people). The main reason is that there is no demand for these workers.

People with higher education refuse from the training courses, where they teach computer bookkeeping and the specialty of workers.

By presidential order of April 7, 2016, events are held under the name "Start your own business." In the framework of this project, 1339 people were given a positive opinion and money to start a business.

Every year, labor fairs are held, and the country's universities implement  the project "The first step to a career" , where students and graduates of universities are in direct contact with employers.

One of the main problems remains the discrepancy of the graduate's profession with the requirements of the labor market. In Azerbaijan, everyone wants their children to have a higher education, which leads to the fact that the diplomas are dusting in the closet. If we monitor university graduates, many can not name the reason for choosing their profession.

"Another problem is the problem of graduates from universities in Georgia, Ukraine and Dagestan, where they entered the certificate, not even having scored the minimum number of points in Azerbaijan. This problem needs to be solved, "Salimov added.

 "The number of employees of the apparatus of the State Employment Service is 56 staff units, and the number of employees of the employment agencies is limited to 852 staff units. Sometimes we see that this number is not enough, said the lawyer of the organization "Transparent Azerbaijan" Ayten Alizamanli.

According to the State Statistics Committee, the number of employees in the economy is 1510.4 thousand people, of whom 883.000 are involved in the state, and 627.4 thousand - in the non-state sector. In January 2017, the minimum average monthly wage of employees increased by 5.1% compared to the previous year and amounted to 504.8 manats.

 In 2016, 2,292,000 manat was allocated from the state budget for improvement of employment. According to the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection, in 2016 243,681 people applied to employment centers, of which 204,283 people are registered, and 35,642 people received the status of unemployed. According to the order of the Cabinet, the minimum amount of the unemployment benefit is 75 manats.

"Based on an internet poll conducted by Transparency Azerbaijan, 52% of respondents did not know about labor fairs, 35% learned through a message on the website, and only 10 people received information on their own initiative.

4/5 respondents had higher education, but 66.7% of them do not work. Every fifth respondent works in the labor market, not by profession.

Only 17.3% of respondents are looking for work through employment centers. The results of the poll say that these centers do not decide the duties assigned to them, "Alizamalli said.

She proposed electronic registration of citizens, the creation of a single information base and electronic circulation system, the improvement of the quality of free courses, etc.

The participants also discussed the role of television in public awareness of labor fairs, the introduction of income tax benefits and deductions to the pension fund for disabled people, the provision of work for graduates of foreign universities, the problems of registering grants, raising the level of education of students, addressing the problem of choosing a specialty by entrants, as well as the problem of corruption in state agencies. -0-