DUSHANBE, December 26, 2012, Asia-Plus – According to the State Agency for Social Protection, Employment and Migration, 98,242 Tajik citizens have applied to the Agency for assistance over the first eleven months of this year.

Of this number, 59,133 individuals have been registered as seeking employment, and 39,431 have been officially registered as unemployed.

Over the same eleven-month period, the employment centers have placed in jobs 32,767 individuals, or 33.3 percent of those who applied.

In addition, 2,330 vulnerable individuals in the labor market were provided with the jobs through a system of reserved positions.  The main reasons of the low number of employed individuals is that a majority of unemployed do not have specific technical skills or have lost skills due to long interruptions in work, and also low salaries.

Over the report period, 6,228 unemployed individuals received unemployment benefits totaling 1,617,583 somoni.

As of December 1, 2012 the total number of individuals seeking employment was 76,000, including those from 2011.  Of this number, 54,600 individuals have status as unemployed.

In January-November this year, 12,377 individuals have been sent to take vocational training, and 4,575 individuals have been placed in state-funded public works.

Information available to the State Agency for Social Protection, Employment and Migration indicates a total of 127,371 new jobs have been created over the first eleven months of this year, 7% more than in in the same period last year (119,154).