Women’s unemployment in Armenia is highest among post-Soviet countries

According to a new report issued by the International Labor Organization on the eve of the International Women’s Day, in most of the countries women’s participation in the labor market is lower than that of men and unemployment rate among women is higher.

In the labor market correlation of working men and women is 10/6 respectively. The number of women among employers is four times less than men. The same trend is also maintained for senior positions. Researchers note that women agree more often than men to work without concluding a contract, bypassing the Labor Code and joining trade unions. According to the ILO report, today women’s unemployment rate around the world is at 6% while it’s 5.2% in case of men.

Armenia occupies the 14th place in the world of unemployment: the unemployment rate is 18.2%, among women it is 20.2%, among men – 16.4%. For comparison, for example, in Belarus (185th place) the unemployment rate is 0.5% and it does not differ between men and women. It should be noted that the index of Armenia is higher both compared to the countries of the region and all post-Soviet countries.

Leaders in the number of unemployed are Palestine, AUA, and Lesotho. Almost a third of the economically active population is unemployed. Unemployment in Syria and Bosnia and Herzegovina is enormous in the female population, reaching up to 40%.

According to the RA statistical service data, 98% of displaced by family circumstances are women, which means that state support measures for family responsibilities and career cohesion are insufficient.

Research shows that if more women in Armenia were employed by their profession and not only by their own will or against it, Gross Domestic Product of Armenia’s GDP would has been more at least by $ 50-60 million.