Gap between demand and supply at Armenia’s labor market should be narrowed

YEREVAN, June 28. /ARKA/. Eduard Kirakosyan, executive director of the Union of Manufacturers and Businessmen (Employers), told journalists on Thursday that the real sector of Armenia’s economy is in want of qualified specialists and ordinary workers. He said there is a wide gap between demand and supply in Armenia’s labor market. 

Kirakosyan said that the country’s universities train specialists without taking into account the labor market demand.

Armenia, he said, is badly in need of turners, metalworkers, milling machine operators and builders. 

He said education establishments should closely cooperate with entrepreneurs to provide labor market with necessary specialists. 

Haykuhi Gevorgyan, head of the Youth Professional Orientation Centre of the labor and social affairs ministry, said that specialists in physics and chemistry would be highly demanded in Armenia in the next three or five years. 

She also said that nowadays high school students find it difficult to choose specialties independently, and this is a big problem. 

Gevorgyan said that secondary school teachers should reveal strong intellectual capacities of students. This will help them make their choice later. 

National Statistical Service of Armenia says 1,194.700 economically active people lived in Armenia in 2011. Of them, 1,120,800 were employed. -0-