National Statistics Office of Georgia to change unemployment measurement methodology

The National Statistics Office of Georgia (Geostat) intends to change its methodology for computing unemployment in the country, said the director of the office Gogita Todradze.

According to the new methodology, subsistence farmers will no longer be recorded as self-employed, as they are not oriented towards the market. 

As pilot studies in other countries have shown, the implementation of the new methodology is followed by huge changes in employment and unemployment statistics, which is likely to increase the unemployment rate. It is also possible to reduce the employment rate,” said Todradze.

The new methodology is already being used in 20 countries, including Armenia, Moldova and the states of the EU.

In the first two quarters of 2020, unemployment will be computed based on both old and new methodologies. From the third quarter of 2020, Geostat will only compute unemployment based on the new methodology.

As of today, about 1,700,000 people are recorded as employed in Georgia, out of which 800,000 are self-employed, of which 70-80 per cent are engaged in agricultural activities.

As of the third quarter of 2019, the unemployment rate in urban settlements reached 16.6 per cent, while the unemployment rate in rural settlements was only 5.5 per cent, largely due to the recording of subsistence farmers as self-employed. 

In the third quarter of 2019, the unemployment rate in Georgia decreased by 1.1 per cent compared to the same period of last year and amounted to 11.1 per cent, show data from Geostat.