WHICH IS THE OFFICIAL UNEMPLOYMENT AND WHICH IS THE REAL ONE?
By Ara Martirosian

AZG Armenian Daily
27/04/2007

‘Azg’ daily received an e-message from our reader Sergey Karayan living
in USA. He wonders about the differences of the information announced
by the National Statistic Service: in one issue the percentage
of unemployment by December 2005 is 7%, and in another one it is
30%. Let’s clarify the above-mentioned contradictions in these issues.

The 7 per cent are those who applied and were given an unemployment
status by the Employment State Service of the Ministry of Labor and
Social Issues.

It means that they are officially unemployed. And what about the 30
per cent, it’s the real index of unemployment in Armenia according
to the statistical analyses of the households made by the National
Statistic Service. These are the people, who did not apply to the
Employment State Service of the Ministry of Labor and Social Issues,
but tried to find jobs by the private employment offices, relatives
or put their ads on the newspapers. They don’t have jobs but they are
ready to work. It means, that according to the International Labor
Organization’s methods they are considered to be unemployed.