2024-04-01 23:57:41
Azerbaijan
The State University of Economics (UNEC) is the third largest university in the country by the number of undergraduate students. According to the latest figures released by the State Statistics Committee, 13,611 undergraduate students studied at UNEC in the 2022-2023 academic year. However, the difficulties of newly graduated young people in finding a job are often mentioned. But what do the official figures show about the job security of new graduates?
The “Employment Rating of Graduates” platform developed by the State Employment Agency contains figures on employment with official employment contracts after graduation from 11 universities of the country. 56.8 percent of the 45,649 people who graduated from those 11 universities in 2018-2021 and whose information was entered into the system have an official employment contract. The calculation was made on the basis of whether the persons concluded an employment contract within two years after graduation.
Since the specialties taught at the University of Economics are directly related to various areas of the economy, the indicators of this university in a certain sense create ideas about the country’s economy and the labor market. When looking at the numbers, it is necessary to take into account that not all those without employment contracts are unemployed, and among them may be informal workers, as well as those who are engaged in entrepreneurial activity or those who are outside the country. However, the published figures show that the graduates of which specialties have relatively more opportunities to find a job with an official employment contract.
Table 1: Number of employees with official employment contracts among UNEC graduates in 2018-2021
| 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | |
| Number of graduates | 2 737 | 2 716 | 2 960 | 2 993 |
| Number of employed | 1 587 | 1 612 | 1 841 | 1 986 |
| Employment rate | 58% | 59.4% | 62.2% | 66.4% |
As can be seen from Table 1, only 61.5 percent of UNEC graduates in 2018-2021 have an employment contract. Over the past 4 years, a relative increase in the specific weight of the employed has been observed. During this period, 7,026 people were hired by a total of 3,242 employers. After graduation, 87 percent of those who started working with an official employment contract are working in the private sector, and 13 percent are working in the public sector. In 2018-2021, the employment rate among men who graduated from UNEC was 59.6 percent, and among women it was 64.7 percent.
Table 2: Indicator of employment in Top-10 specializations at UNEC according to the number of graduates
| Specialization | Proportion of employed graduates |
| Commercial | 67.8% |
| Organization and management of the industry | 67.1% |
| Accounting and auditing | 65.3% |
| Management | 63.0% |
| Expertise and marketing of consumer goods | 62.8% |
| Finance | 61.3% |
| Food engineering | 61.0% |
| Economy | 59.7% |
| Business management | 58.6% |
| The world economy | 57.8% |
From the figures, it can be seen that among the TOP-10 specialties according to the number of graduates, in 2018-2021, the most commercial majors were employed with a labor contract. The lowest indicator was recorded in the World economy specialty.
Table 3: Employers who employ UNEC graduates the most:
| Employer | Number of employees (people) |
| Capital Bank | 232 |
| Unibank | 136 |
| Araz Supermarket | 103 |
| International Bank of Azerbaijan | 101 |
| ABC-Telekom (Contact Home) | 79 |
| Express Bank | 66 |
| That Bank | 65 |
| Friendly Job Center | 58 |
| Accessbank | 58 |
| Well done Market | 58 |
As can be seen from Table 3, six of the top 10 companies (institutions) employing UNEC graduates in 2018-2021 are banks. However, the presence of 2 grocery stores and 1 electronics store in the top ten is particularly noteworthy. The fact that these companies are in the forefront among employers means that not all graduates work in jobs that require high specialization, and the number of sellers with higher education in the country is quite large. The large number of banks in the list can be considered as an indicator of the limited number of large companies outside the financial sector in the country.
Table 4: Salary distribution of UNEC graduates who graduated and found a job with an employment contract in 2018-2021:
| Person | A woman | |
| Up to 500 manats | 81.1% | 81.4% |
| 500-950 manats | 15.6% | 15.1% |
| 951-1550 manats | 2.3% | 2.7% |
| More than 1550 manats | 1.0% | 0.8% |
It is clear from the published figures that the majority of graduates who find work earn income at the minimum wage level. The official salary of 81 percent of UNEC graduates working with an employment contract is up to 500 manats. Of the 7,026 graduates who found official jobs, only 54 have an official gross salary of more than 1,550 manats. This indicator is also an indicator of the limited number of jobs with high income opportunities in the country.
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