Armenia’s working-age groups represented approximately 69 per cent of the total population in 2016 and experienced an unemployment rate at approximately 17.4 per cent in 2017. The Government of the Republic of Armenia has implemented active labour market programmes and unemployment benefits as part of its Unemployment Insurance (UI) scheme since 1991. The UI scheme has been designed to promote employment through capacity building programmes and provides financial support to unemployed persons. Armenia’s UI is administered by the State Social Security Service and the State Employment Service Agency.
Armenia’s UI is a contributory scheme compulsory for those in the public and formal private sectors, and the self-employed. The UI is financed through contributions set at 3 per cent of the employee’s monthly earnings and up to a maximum of 15 per cent for those who are self-employed. In order to qualify for benefits, the claimant must be unemployed as a result of enterprise reorganisation, staff reduction or the cancellation of a collective agreement. To be eligible claimants must have made contributions for at least 12 months before unemployment, or must be actively searching for employment after a period of lengthy unemployment. First-time jobseekers are also eligible for the UI. Those who do not qualify for the monthly payment remain eligible for the capacity building programmes available within the UI scheme. Those eligible for the monthly unemployment benefit are entitled to receive a monthly payment of AMD 18,000, or USD 49, for a minimum of 6 months and a maximum of 12 months. The UI also includes a scheme to assist employers with the hire of persons who are: 1) unemployed with at least 35 years of contributions to UI who have not reached the age of retirement, 2) unemployed for more than three years, 3) returning from corrective or medical institutions, 4) returning from compulsory military service, 5) disabled, 6) refugees; or, 7) 16 years of age and newly eligible to work. Employers who hire these groups are eligible to receive a benefit of 50 per cent of minimum wage in order to subsidise the employee’s salary. The UI also includes financial support and capacity building programmes for the unemployed or disabled persons who wish to start their own business. Armenia also offers a Paid Public Works program through which temporary public employment is made available for 3 months to jobseekers and the disabled.
Further Reading:
International Labour Organization (2011). Decent Work Country Profile: Armenia. Accessed from http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---dgreports/---integration/documents/publication/wcms_185266.pdf on July 22, 2013.
Armenia’s active labour policy and UI is supported by a strong legal framework enhanced in 2005 through the adoption of the Law on Employment of the Population and Social Protection in Case of Unemployment, which requires labour policy to be regulated by the Constitution, the Labour Code, the Civil Code and other legislative acts, as well as international treaties. As such, Armenia’s UI scheme supports an inclusive labour policy and forms an essential part of the national social protection floor through the provision of basic income security to working-age groups.