Slight Increase in Azeri Joblessness

Azerbaijan’s unemployment rate increased from 4.94 to 4.96% between September and December 2017. According to data research company CEIC, the average rate of unemployment of the country is around 5.17%. This is still close to the country’s lowest ever unemployment rate of 4.5%, and a long way off its peak of 11.8%, Emerging Europe reported. The same data states that the population increased and reached 9.9 million people by the end of 2017, and the average monthly earnings grew to around $305. Moreover, the country’s labor force participation rate dropped to 66.1%. Overall, Azerbaijan has made significant progress over the last 10 years. World Bank data suggests that poverty has been reduced, and the size of the country’s middle-class has grown. Precisely, from 2007 to 2012 the poverty rate dropped from 15.9% to 6%. It is also worth mentioning that the main obstacles to job creation are in the agriculture sector, which has low-growth development, and has around 37% of the workforce but produces approximately just 5% of GDP.