Irakli Kobakhidze: “More than 185,000 new jobs were created in the last three years – from 2022 to 2024. The number of employed people in 2024 alone grew by 68,000, pushing the total number of employed individuals past 1.4 million.”
Verdict: FactCheck concludes that Irakli Kobakhidze’s statement is HALF TRUE.
The number of employed people rose by 185,000 between 2022 and 2024 according to GeoStat. The number rose by 68,000 in 2024 alone, reaching 1,402,500. Thus, whilst the figures cited by Irakli Kobakhidze are statistically accurate, his claim that these are entirely new jobs is not correct. Additionally, his assertion that the increase is solely due to economic growth does not reflect the full picture.
Irakli Kobakhidze compares the employment rate to 2021 when employment had dropped to a ten-year low due to the pandemic and related economic restrictions. Comparing the 2024 data to pre-pandemic levels – namely 2019, the total number of employed people had risen by 106,600. The number of employed people has grown by only 94,000 over the last decade (2015-2024).
Considering the aforementioned, a substantial share of the three-year growth reflects the recovery of jobs lost during the pandemic, including positions artificially created under state social programmes. Therefore, whilst the data is factually correct, presenting these figures as entirely new jobs created solely through economic growth overstates the reality and misleads the public.
Thus, FactCheck concludes that Irakli Kobakhidze’s statement is HALF TRUE.
Speaking at a plenary session of Parliament, Irakli Kobakhidze stated: “More than 185,000 new jobs were created in the last three years – from 2022 to 2024. The number of employed people in 2024 alone grew by 68,000, pushing the total number of employed individuals past 1.4 million, which is a historic high. This means that economic growth is directly reflected in the standard of living of the population and in people’s employment.”
FactCheck verified the accuracy of Irakli Kobakhidze’s statement.
First, it should be clarified that Mr Kobakhidze is comparing the 2024 employment rate with that of 2021 when employment fell sharply due to the pandemic and related economic restrictions. The lowest employment rate in the last decade (2015-2024) was recorded in 2021. Comparing current figures to that low point is therefore misleading and inflates the perceived progress.
The number of employed people in 2024 constituted 1,402,500 – the highest recorded between 2010 and 2024 according to GeoStat. The number of employed people rose by 67,900 (5%) last year alone as compared to the previous year. The number of employed increased by 185,000 over the three-year period from 2022 to 2024. However, as noted, comparing this growth to the pandemic period exaggerates the true scale of improvement.
As for the employment trend in recent years, employment indicators in Georgia in 2020-2021 deteriorated sharply due to the prolonged and strict economic restrictions imposed during the COVID-19 pandemic. This was one of the most difficult periods for the labour market, reflected in reduced economic activity and significant job losses. The labour market situation improved notably in 2022, although employment levels did not fully return to the pre-pandemic figures. The number of employed individuals not only increased as compared to the previous years in 2023 and 2024 but also surpassed pre-pandemic levels.
We compared the 2024 data with the pre-pandemic period – specifically, 2019 – to accurately assess the employment trend. The total number of employed people rose by 106,600 between 2019 and 2024 according to the official statistics. Furthermore, the employment rate (the share of employed people in the population aged 15 and over) rose from 42.7% to 47.1% during the same period.
For additional context, the total number of employed people grew by only 94,000 whilst the employment rate rose by just 3.8 percentage points over the last decade (2015-2024).
Graph 1: Number of Employed People and Employment Rate in 2015-2024
Source: National Statistics Office of Georgia
Additionally, it is essential to understand the factors that contributed to the increase in the number of employed people in the country between 2022 and 2024. Firstly, the end of the pandemic and the lifting of related economic restrictions led to the restoration of jobs lost during the pandemic. Moreover, new jobs were created across both the private and public sectors. Furthermore, the employment programme for socially vulnerable individuals, which was launched in the spring of 2022, also contributed to the growth in employment to a certain extent. The objective of the programme is to encourage the employment of socially vulnerable, employable individuals, primarily through artificially created public jobs. It is important to view the aforementioned programme not as a genuine employment initiative but as a social programme funded by the state budget, resulting in a rise in employment statistics.
As a result, whilst employment has indeed grown and reached a record high in 2024, the claim that 185,000 entirely new jobs were created in the past three years is overstated. In reality, a significant share of this figure reflects the restoration of jobs lost during the pandemic rather than the creation of entirely new positions. Moreover, attributing this growth solely to economic expansion overlooks other key factors behind the trend.
