In search of work: Who will be the lucky one? (video)
After a year of futile attempts to find a job economist Sergey Movsisyan appeared in a job fair. The economist with more than 40 years of work experience became unemployed following heart surgery. The 60-year-old man is surprised by the requirements of employers. “People are putting age restrictions. It seems to be in vogue… Wherever you go, they demand that the employee be under 35 with a higher education, someone who has served in the military, knows languages… It already makes 40… Things do not happen that way… It is absurd. But as they say he who pays the piper calls the tune,” Mr. Movsisyan says. 
Despite the set of strict educational and experience requirements included in job announcements, the ingrained tradition of hiring an employee through kinship and nepotism has not disappeared in Armenia. “It is strongly rooted in our society and do not think that it may disappear after the change of the prime minister or ministers,” the economist says. After a year of job search the economist came to different, even contradictory conclusions. One cannot feel satisfied with one job as he can hardly pay for utilities with the salary proposed by employers. “The system of differential pricing does not work in Armenia. Russia is not one of the most developed countries in the world, but wages and pensions are differentiated quarterly and yearly there which is not the case in Armenia. We all see frequent price hikes and depreciation of the Armenian currency that hit the public hard and even people with regular jobs cannot work under those conditions. The salary is not enough for them in a year or two,” he adds. Sergey Movsisyan would like to work by his profession again. But he has lost every hope and is now considering all proposals with great difficulty. “I would like to find something close to my profession but I am ready to do even manual work,” he says. Anyway, Sergey Movsisyan did not approach the labour pavilions where the employer was looking for employees himself. The economist says he cannot do the work offered by them. A shoe factory was looking for shoemakers. 
Petros Gevorgyan, who settled in Armenia after fleeing his home in Syria a year ago, has opened a workshop in his homeland with one of his friends. At present, he has four workers. “We are ready to take new orders. We are optimistic that there will be a large amount of orders,” says Petros. As of September 1, 2016 the official number of job-seekers makes up 95.800 people, 62.600 of whom are women. Not only unemployed look for a job. The number of the unemployed persons makes up 80.4% (about 77000 thousand people) of job-seekers. Many job-seekers want to change their place of work. There are also students among them who want to combine work with studies. There were 1877 vacant positions and 1156 pending jobs in Armenia as of September 1. The State Employment Agency arranges regular job fairs to organize meetings between employers and job-seekers. 
“It is one thing to send job-seekers to organizations, their HR departments or contact via phone and ask questions, and it is another thing that job-seekers and employers meet in one place,” says Artak Mangasaryan, Head of the State Employment Agency. During the recent years annually 11 job fairs have been organized in the Republic. From 2007 until now, 5000 people have found jobs as a result of 74 job fairs “Our studies, years’ experience show that during three months, at least 60 percent of the available jobs are hold. Not only vacant jobs are held, but also information is received about employers, and employers themselves take CVs and if necessary contact the beneficiaries, invite for interviews. It means the process takes long,” notes Mr Mangasaryan. Doctors are mainly in demand in regions, in Yerevan there are vacant jobs in service sector. According to the age, among the unemployed 30-44-year-old people make up the largest age group- 39.1%, the second group, 16-29-year-old people, makes up 24.4%. Among the unemployed 45-54-year-old people make up 20.0%, people over 55- 16.5%. 40.5% of those, who look for a job for the first time, are young people. 
24-year-old Petros Margaryan, who was demobilized three months ago, is looking for energy specialist’s or financier’s job. Petros doesn’t think about working by other profession, “If you can see yourself in a certain sphere, have certain qualities, which will help you to work in the sphere you desire, if you do another job, it will hinder you to reach your goal.” While choosing a job, the young man also takes into account the salary, “I have given an interview, but I wasn’t satisfied with the salary. I had warned them not to phone me, if the salary is less than AMD 125.000, but they phoned and offered a job with AMD 95.000 salary, and the job wasn’t appropriate.” Petros says that he is confident in his knowledge and professional skills, that’s why he believes that one day he will be able to find a job of his dreams: “A skillful specialist cannot remain without a job for a long time. I accept that there are spheres, where the tradition of kinship and nepotism is strongly rooted, but there are spheres, for example information technologies, where kinship and nepotism, roughly speaking, don’t work and have no role.” Nevertheless, what will he do if his search turns to be in vain? “A reserve option is left, any job only to have some income. But I don’t have such plans, such a scenario is not real for me,” says Petros. 
Syrian-Armenian shoemaker Petros Gevorgyan received phone calls few days after the job fair, but he has only given promises to them, “There are many people, who have turned to us. Now we are waiting so that orders increase and we enter foreign market in order to hire those job-seekers,” notes shoemaker. The authorities have promised to help Petros Gevorgyan still several months ago, when he started up his production. The participation at the job fair and different exhibitions helped to finally accelerate the process, “We have been promised to be given new territory. The territory is located near Komitas. They told me that it will be given for free for two years.” Petros Gevorgyan hopes that soon he will phone job-seekers and will offer jobs to shoemakers. But now he doesn’t mention concrete time: “We cannot foresee, as we have just settled here and don’t know from where to start.” 
In the first six months of this year, 13425 people have found jobs through the State Employment Agency, but the jobs of 7285 people are seasonal and temporary. 2616 of those, who have been hired, are young people, 802 out of them have been provided with seasonal and temporary jobs.
