The unemployment rate in Armenia is decreasing. Minister of Finance Vahe Hovhannisyan announced this during the debates on the draft 2024 state budget at the joint meeting of parliamentary standing committees in the National Assembly of Armenia Monday.
"I don't recall Armenia ever having such a low unemployment rate. But I also agree that work-related programs should be improved," said the finance minister.
Narek Mkrtchyan, Minister of Labor and Social Affairs, also confirmed that there is a low level of unemployment in Armenia. Accordingly, so far in 2023 it is 11.7 percent, and compared to the same period in 2022, it is 13 percent. Mkrtchyan believes that this should also have an impact on poverty reduction indicators of the country.
"The poverty index [of Armenia] for 2022 was published. If last year it was 26.5 percent, now we have 24.8 percent. Also, extreme poverty decreased from 1.5 to 1.2 percent; this, in the case when taking into account various factors, various experts of the World Bank predicted a possible increase of poverty up to 39.6 percent last year for this year," said the minister.
