December 24, 2010 - 15:17 AMT
Low labor capacity among evident problems of Armenia’s economy

Board member and leading analyst of Economy and Values research center Sevak Hovhannisyan said that the global financial crisis showed that Armenia’s economy reacts rather rapidly to global developments.

Armenia is among the countries, which recorded a significant drop in GDP in 2009 and slow rehabilitation of economy in 2010, Hovhannisyan said, presenting 2010 Report on Armenia’s National Competitiveness: Challenges of Higher Education.

“Low labor capacity is among the evident problems of Armenia’s economy. 70% of the country’s population is employed in the fields of low capacity,” he said.

According to the expert, a working person in Armenia annually produces goods and services at the amount of $7,930, while the figure reaches $68,400 in Israel.

Labor capacity is distributed unevenly among the fields in Armenia, like in majority of developing countries.

The fields of financial intermediation, business service and construction have high labor capacity. And the labor capacity in these fields exceeds the capacity in agriculture, education, healthcare and other fields by seven times.