Armenia failing to cope with unemployment plague

/By AzerNews/

By Mushvig Mehdiyev

There is an army of unemployed persons living in Armenia, according the latest data.

The total number of jobless persons in Armenia grew by 17.9 percent, from 56,000 to 66,000, in 2014, said Artak Mangasaryan, Head of the State Employment Service agency.

"Our data suggests that the number of job seekers has increased dramatically since the early 2014 and is around 72,600 as of this January. Nearly 91.4 percent of the overall job hunters are unemployed," he said.

Mangasaryan added that there are 47,300 unemployed women and 15,600 jobless youngsters in Armenia, noting that middle-aged people share the largest part of the jobless citizens with 38.9 percent.

The National Statistic Service's data for 2014 said the unemployment rate in Armenia was 17.1 percent, covering 238,400 people in the country.

Unemployment is among the key reasons behind massive outflow from the post soviet country.

Nearly 92 percent of young Armenians, according to a survey by the Center for Realization of Youth Initiatives and Institution for Youth Studies, prefer to live and work in Russia. Even the recent financial comedowns do not kill their desire to leave their land for the northern neighbor. One of the Armenian residents living in Russia said notwithstanding the crisis, he earned four times more than he pocketed in Armenia.

The strong influence of Russia's economic developments on Armenia's economy is a proven fact confirmed in many cases. The latest proof came as the South Caucasus country faced an economic trouble simultaneously with the crisis in Russia.

Lagging economy in Armenia shackled many financial and industrial fields, including banking, mining, wine production etc. This turmoil, in turn, ended in closure of numerous workplaces in the country, pushing citizens to seek jobs abroad.