Approximately 38% of people with university degrees are unemployed in Georgia

According to a new study by PMC Research, an independent consulting group from Georgia, as of 2017-2020, unemployment among people with higher education in Georgia ranged from 32-38%.

The unemployment rate in the country by the end of 2020 was 18.5%. In addition, unemployment remained a serious problem for 46% of the population, according to an NDI poll of that same year.

It is also noteworthy that in 2017-2020, during the survey period, the share of people with higher and vocational education among the unemployed tended to decrease – in 2017-2020 their share decreased by 6.4% but the share of people with middle-school and incomplete secondary education as well as persons with disabilities increased by 9 and 1 points, respectively.

Researchers explain such a high level of unemployment by two factors: jobs that require high professional qualifications are not being created in the Georgian labor market, and the level of education does not meet the demand of the labor market for jobs that require high professional qualifications.

In 2020, among the countries of the Eastern Partnership, Armenia and
Georgia shared the highest unemployment rates – 20.2% and 18.5% respectively followed by Ukraine with 9.5%.

Moldova had the lowest unemployment rate – 4.7%, as well as Belarus and Azerbaijan with 5.2% and 6.2%.

Due to the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, unemployment rose in all Eastern Partnership countries, except Moldova, where unemployment fell by 0.39%.

• 21.3% of Georgia’s population lives below the poverty line

According to the National Statistical Office of Georgia, the economic downturn last year was unprecedented, as Georgia’s economy contracted by 6.1% in 2020 – becoming the country’s most significant economic contraction since 1994.

The main reason for the recession is a pandemic and months of isolation.

In addition, 13.7% of the total population in Georgia receives social assistance, which means that every seventh individual lives in a state of extreme poverty.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, the number of such people has increased by 16% and currently there are more than half a million recipients of social assistance – 510,343 people.