RESUME SENT

The "oil crisis", which is observed in the world today, has also affected Azerbaijan, of course. It led to the failure of various regional projects and exodus of staff - something opened somewhere and something closed somewhere unable to withstand the pressure from the devaluation of the manat. But one thing is clear. A crisis is not only problems but also new chances and opportunities for development, as strange as it may sound. A crisis is a review of priorities for development not only at the global, but also at the personal level. Accordingly, the structure of the labour market also changes. So, what kind of job is on offer in Azerbaijan today and what specialities are in demand most of all.

Enough work for all?

A representative of the website rabota.az, Orxan Bilalov, said in an interview with R+ that the site features over 30,000 offers. "With so many jobs and the demand for specialists, job-seekers are unlikely to have big problems with employment," he says. According to him, it is first of all top managers, administrative staff in offices, bank staff, accountants, designers, IT-workers, specialists in marketing, advertising, PR and HR and tutors that are in demand on the Azerbaijani labour market today. We also need workers in the fields of industry, agriculture and services: part-time jobs, seasonal work, sale (retail), passenger and freight transport, restaurateurs, chefs, waiters, workmen, general workers, repair, service, sports, fitness and beauty salons.

There is pretty little demand for professions associated with the media, publishing business, printing, tourism and hotel business, and law. There is very little work offered directly to young people. There are no offers at all for people without work experience and those who are starting a career.

The chairman of the Research Centre for Sustainable Develop-ment, Nariman Agayev, told R+ that due to the active influx of people from the regions of the country, there is a high population density - mainly in the capital. Naturally, the question of finding work is particularly important. In construction, transport and trade, there is a fairly high turnover of staff, and therefore, a lot of working-age men employed there are without work and their families - without a stable income. This situation is similar to that of Russia - in a crisis, an important problem is not so much full unemployment as the growing number of people with part-time and reduced income, which, of course, affects the overall economic situation.

What did the exhibition show?

A recent labour exhibition called "Career and Education", which was held for the ninth time this year, showed that not only a lot of young people, but also specialists seek new options for employment. It should be noted that not all of those who turn up are actually looking for a job: some are interested not only in income, but also in improving their skills and even in new education.

Huseyn Suleymanov is 35 years old. He is a sailor, a former captain and a first-class engineer. He has come to look for a new job. In summer, I worked as a manager in the Crystal Hall sports and concert complex during the European Games. "Now I am out of work and hope to be among managers for future sporting events, namely the upcoming Formula 1 tournament, which will be held in Baku next year," Huseyn says. "However, I do not really believe that they will definitely employ me there, and so far only 15 positions have been offered before the tournament. So I will count on luck as it happened before the European Games."

Farac Seyidbayli is only 20, but he is fluent in Azerbaijani, Russian and German. He is a student at the university, and in his spare time he engages in multimedia, photography, music, pottery, and after his classes, he teaches children in a private film school to hold the camera, edit films and love art. "I love everything I do, and I hope to get some interesting job with a salary of at least 400 manats," he says.

Nargiz Aliyeva is also 20. She is a student at the University of Languages at the Faculty of Spanish. She has been looking for a job for a year. In her spare time after classes, Nargiz privately teaches foreign languages to students. "I hope to get any work, because in every position there is always room for personal development," she says.

Who are employers themselves looking for? A representative of one of the famous companies in Azerbaijan, Allahverdi Bagirov, told R+ that his organization participates in the exhibition for the first time. "We have a lot of vacancies in various fields." Therefore, the company decided to participate in the exhibition to find the right people.

State strategy

According to the State Statistics Committee, 2,289 of the 28,989 officially registered unemployed are currently provided with an unemployment benefit of 289 manats. Of course, the benefits cannot solve the unemployment problem. In his speeches to the Cabinet of Ministers, President Ilham Aliyev has repeatedly stated that one of the main causes of unemployment is unjustified inspections and financial extortion by some government agencies, which damage the economy. It is well known that at another cabinet meeting recently, the president noted that although 30,000 people have lost their jobs since the beginning of the year and, 67,000 new permanent jobs were created at the same time. He also noted that the creation of new jobs must be permanent.

What is happening in the world?

The International Labour Organization (ILO), as a specialized agency of the United Nations, has long been sounding the alarm about the rise of unemployment in the world. According to the organization, there are approximately a little more than 200m unemployed people in the world. According to the ILO, these are those who are fit to work, but do not have a job and are in search of it. This is 30m more than before the global financial crisis of 2008. The main thing that concerns the ILO in this regard is the percentage of those who are working without a standard employment contract. In most cases, those who work part-time or piecework are faced with the violation of their rights, and many of them are living in poverty. "In some cases, non-standard types of work can help people gain a foothold on the labour market. However, these trends are also a reflection of a broader trend of growth in insecurity faced by workers around the world," ILO chief Guy Ryder said. For this reason, the ILO and the government recommend signing an employment contract once you get a job. It will always protect workers from violations of their rights, and first of all from dismissal without allowance.

In this regard, the following information looks quite promising: in October of this year, 169,820 people in Azerbaijan benefited from the e-services of the Ministry of Labour and Social Security - registration of labour contracts in the electronic information system (EIS) on the Electronic Govern-ment portal. Of them, 126,909 benefited from the e-services "Electronic registration of labour contracts and notifying the employer about it" and 42,911 people - "Informing workers on the conclusion of employment contracts".

The measures that are being implemented by the Azerbaijani Ministry of Labour are aimed at creating mechanisms of state control over the registration of labour contracts. At the same time, the electronic registration of employment contracts in the EIS will create conditions for the protection of workers' rights, increased social security contributions and tax revenues in the future.

Each labour contract signed shall enter into force after the registration of the notification form about the employment contract in the EIS. The procedure for submitting notification forms of employment contracts to the EIS is conducted via the Electronic Government portal (https://www.e-gov.az). It also provides the security of the data entered into the system. Overall, in 10 months of this year, 1,675,727 people in Azerbai-jan benefited from e-services for the registration of labour contracts in the EIS on the Electronic Government portal.

So all you have to do is to look for a job and not lose hope. There are always prospects for development and growth.