YEREVAN. - The Labor Ministry of Armenia will quit the job placement program implemented through private companies.

Deputy Minister of Labor and Social Affairs of Armenia, Sona Harutyunyan, told the aforementioned to Armenian News – NEWS.am Tuesday.

In her words, the productivity of the program is almost zero.  

Job placement agencies were allocated means – 100,000 AMD per capita (approx. $210) - for supporting the unemployed.

“But the private companies, unfortunately, didn’t fulfill the tasks set before them. We implemented the program for 2-3 years, but in 2017 we will almost quit it,” Harutyunyan said. The draft 2017 State Budget allocates only 200,000 AMD to this end and for two people (in 2016 this amount constituted 2 mln for 20 people).

It is also planned to reduce the funding for visits to the employers aimed at looking for a job for persons who are not competitive in the labor market. According to the Labor Ministry assessment system, the productivity of this program is below 50 percent. Thus, it is planned to allocate 10.2 mln AMD to it, instead of 65.1 mln in 2016. The average sum of support will be reduced from 18,000 to 8000 AMD.

On the other hand, a number of other programs proved to be highly productive. For instance, the productivity of job fairs was assessed at 94 percent. In fact, it is planned to hold 11 such job fairs in 2017 - one in each province of Armenia and in Yerevan. 7.7 mln AMD ($16,000) will be allocated to this end.