In January 2026 the ILO published Employment and Social Trends 2026, its annual flagship assessment of the world’s labour markets. Its central message — headline stability masking stalled progress in job quality — applies to Georgia with particular force. This Georgia Edition sets each of the ILO’s main global findings beside Georgia’s own data, and asks what they mean for policy here.
Key Findings
- The ILO projects global unemployment at 4.9% in 2026. On the ILO’s harmonised definitions, Georgia’s unemployment rate was 8.2% in 2025 — about 1.7 times the global rate. Geostat’s national rate, which uses national methodology, was 13.9% in 2025 (ILO, 2026; ILOSTAT; Geostat).
- The ILO’s global “jobs gap” — people who want paid work but cannot get it — is projected at 408 million. Georgia’s equivalent broad measure, composite labour underutilisation (LU4), was 28.8% in 2024, twice the unemployment rate (ILO, 2026; Geostat via PMCG, 2025).
- Globally, women are 24.2% less likely than men to participate in the labour force. In Georgia the gap is wider: on 2025 participation rates of 44.2% for women and 66.3% for men, women are about 33% less likely to participate (ILO, 2026; GILS calculation from Geostat).
- Global youth unemployment is 12.4% and 20% of young people are not in employment, education or training (NEET). On the same harmonised definitions, Georgia’s youth unemployment was 23.7% and its youth NEET rate 15.3% in 2025: youth unemployment is far higher than the world average, while the NEET rate is lower (ILO, 2026; ILOSTAT).
- The ILO stresses that progress will depend increasingly on domestic action — job creation, productivity, skills, social protection and labour market institutions. Each of these is an area of documented weakness in Georgia.
1. What the ILO Found
Employment and Social Trends 2026 describes labour markets that are stable but fragile. Global unemployment is projected to remain at 4.9% in 2026, but the ILO warns that this stability “should not be mistaken for a return to healthy labour market conditions”: progress in job quality has stalled, nearly 300 million workers live in extreme working poverty, and 2.1 billion are in informal employment (ILO, 2026).
The report highlights diverging trends by country income group. In high- and upper-middle-income economies — Georgia is classified as upper-middle income — population ageing and slower labour force growth are helping to stabilise unemployment even as job creation remains modest. It identifies persistent inequalities for women and young people, slowing structural transformation, and risks from trade uncertainty, accelerating adoption of artificial intelligence and high sovereign debt (ILO, 2026).
2. Georgia Against the Global Picture
| ILO global finding (2026 report) | Georgia | Georgia source |
|---|---|---|
| Unemployment rate 4.9% (2025, projected unchanged in 2026) | 8.2% (2025, ILO-harmonised); national rate 13.9% (2025) | ILOSTAT; Geostat |
| Jobs gap: 408 million people want paid work but cannot access it | Composite labour underutilisation (LU4) 28.8% (2024) | Geostat, via PMCG (2025) |
| 2.1 billion workers in informal employment | 37.1% of employment informal (2022) | ILO Working Paper 159 |
| Women 24.2% less likely than men to participate | About 33% less likely (2025) | GILS calculation from Geostat |
| Youth unemployment 12.4% | 23.7% (ages 15–24, 2025, ILO-harmonised) | ILOSTAT |
| 20% of youth NEET | 15.3% (ages 15–24, 2025, ILO-harmonised) | ILOSTAT |
Note: for comparability, Georgian unemployment, youth unemployment and NEET figures are the ILO’s harmonised estimates, computed from Geostat’s Labour Force Survey microdata to ILO definitions. They differ from Geostat’s published national rates (for example 13.9% unemployment in 2025), which use national methodology. The jobs gap (a count of people) and LU4 (a rate) are shown side by side as orders of magnitude only.
3. What It Means for Georgia
Stable headlines, weak foundations
The ILO’s warning about “fragile stability” fits Georgia closely. Georgia’s unemployment rate has fallen since 2021, but the employment rate stood at only 46.0% in the second quarter of 2026, labour force participation at 53.3%, and underutilisation affects more than one in four people in or near the labour force (Geostat; PMCG, 2025). As GILS has documented, falling unemployment has partly reflected people leaving the labour force rather than finding work.
Women and young people
On both of the ILO’s inequality indicators Georgia compares poorly: the gender participation gap is wider than the global average, and youth unemployment is almost twice the global rate. Georgia’s youth NEET rate is lower than the global average, but a high share of employed young people work in jobs below their level of education (IMF, 2026).
Domestic action
The ILO concludes that progress will depend increasingly on domestic policy: job creation, productivity, skills, social protection and labour market institutions. In Georgia these correspond to known gaps — a minimum wage unchanged since 1999, an informality rate above one-third, limited adult learning, and no official measure of collective bargaining coverage.
4. Counter-argument
Georgia’s labour market has improved markedly since the pandemic: unemployment has fallen from over 20% in 2021 to below 14%, and nominal average earnings rose by 8.9% in the year to the first quarter of 2026 (Eurostat; Geostat). Some of the gap with global averages reflects measurement — Georgia’s 2020 methodology change, for example — and the structure of an economy with a large self-employed and agricultural sector. The direction of travel is positive; the question is whether it is fast and broad enough.
5. Conclusion
Read against the ILO’s global assessment, Georgia’s labour market shows the same pattern of headline improvement and underlying weakness — but with higher unemployment, a wider gender gap and much higher youth unemployment than the world average. The ILO’s prescription of stronger domestic action on jobs, skills, social protection and institutions is directly relevant.
GILS Recommendations
- Adopt broader headline indicators: publish labour underutilisation (LU1–LU4) and NEET rates alongside unemployment every quarter.
- Set national targets for youth unemployment, women’s participation and informality, benchmarked against ILO global and regional averages.
- Invest in skills and lifelong learning — see the GILS Georgia Edition on the ILO’s 2026 skills report.
- Strengthen labour market institutions: minimum wage setting, labour inspection and social dialogue.
GILS Position
Georgia should judge its labour market by the ILO’s broader yardsticks — job quality, inclusion and underutilisation — not by the unemployment rate alone.
References
- ILOSTAT (2026). Unemployment rate and youth NEET rate, Georgia (ILO harmonised series from the Labour Force Survey). ilostat.ilo.org
- ILO (2026). Employment and Social Trends 2026. World of Work series. Geneva: International Labour Office. doi.org/10.54394/AHRT2681
- Geostat (2026). Employment and Unemployment (Labour Force Survey). geostat.ge
- PMCG Research (2025). Labor Market Overview: Georgia, Issue 151. research.pmcg-i.com
- Pignatti, C. (2026). Recent Trends on Informal Employment in Georgia. ILO Working Paper 159. doi.org/10.54394/MOJI5185
- IMF (2026). Georgia: Selected Issues. Country Report No. 26/134. imf.org
- Eurostat (2024). European Neighbourhood Policy – East – labour market statistics. ec.europa.eu
Suggested citation: GILS Research Team (2026). Employment and Social Trends 2026: Georgia Edition. Editor: G. Pkhakadze. Georgian Institute of Labour Studies, Tbilisi. labour.edu.ge
GILS analyses are prepared with AI-assisted drafting. All figures and claims are verified against the cited primary sources and reviewed under the responsibility of the Editor.