Armenia: where did 50,000 jobs come from since the revolution?

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan documented late yesterday an assertion he had earlier made from the rostrum of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe that 50,000 jobs have been created in Armenia since the revolution.

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Where’s the data coming from?

Pashinyan’s earlier statement caused controversy in Armenia – the parliamentary opposition had doubts about the reality of the figure. In response, Pashinyan presented his sources: tax reports, according to which since January 2018 the number of taxpayers in Armenia increased by more than 50,000.

The prime minister said that this figure could not be questioned:

“These figures can not be untrue … If necessary, we are able to find out in which companies and specifically by how many [people] the number of employees has increased.”

How did the new jobs come about?

Pashinyan acknowledged that some of these jobs existed before the revolution, and that after the change of power in Armenia, some businesses decided to come out of the shadows and register their employees.

However, Pashinyan is confident that many of these 50,000 are still new jobs:

“Of course there are new jobs here. A differentiation of this number will require more in-depth analysis, but these subtleties are not so important at the moment. Significantly, the number of registered jobs in Armenia compared to January 2018 in January 2019 in the Republic of Armenia increased by 50,141.”

The prime minister suggested why this figure provoked heated discussions in the country:

“It may even seem like a fantasy. But this fantasy today is a reality in Armenia, and this is very good. I think this is not an achievement of the Government of Armenia, but I think that this is the result of an increase in the consciousness of our entrepreneurs, our citizens, our companies. ”

In which areas have new jobs emerged?

Tax reports show the largest number of jobs arose in the field of retail and wholesale trade: 16,427.

Followed by:

service provision and catering: 10,908,

processing industry: 9,551,

information and communications: 2,260.