25,000 employed in public programme for socially vulnerable - PM

Georgian prime minister Irakli Garibashvili on Tuesday said the public employment programme for the country’s socially vulnerable individuals, proposed by him late last year, had given jobs to 25,000 people since March. 

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Speaking to the media, the head of the government said the figure was still “not enough”, and that “better communication” was required to better promote the government initiative.

He added “qualified labour force” remained a domestic problem, and stressed his government planned to provide additional funds to invest in vocational education. 

This [the lack of professionals] is certainly an obvious problem, and the government has plans to invest even more in vocational education. This is a serious challenge not only in our country, but in many foreign states and requires joint work”, Garibashvili said. 

The Georgian labour minister last month said the jobs offered as part of the programme - announced by Garibashvili late last year and launched in February - included cleaning of public infrastructure and facilities, construction, prevention of spread of harmful insects and more. 

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Garibashvili explained the initiative would provide socially vulnerable citizens fit for work with jobs instead of the current social assistance, pointing out that over 200,000 out of 600,000 citizens in the socially vulnerable category were able to work but "do not participate in the economy and are demotivated to be employed legally".