Category: NEWS

Rising wages and fewer low earners in Georgia’s job market

As data compiled by the research group PMCG showed, 985,975 people received a monthly salary in September 2025 (a 4.9 percent increase from August and a 2.6 percent rise compared to September last year, despite persistent unemployment).
According to economist Soso Archvadze, even a one-percent increase means tens of thousands of new jobs and an overall growth in salaries and improvement of the livelihoods of around 30,000 to 40,000 Georgians.
Also, the number of low-income earners has decreased.
As official statistics show, the share of people earning less than 600 lari per month declined to 12.5 percent in September, one percentage point lower than in August and three points lower than a year earlier. Simultaneously, the share of high-income earners, those making 2,400 lari or more, reached 33.6 percent, up half a point from August and 5.6 points from last September.
Nevertheless, economist Merab Janiashvili says that the information technology sector is the area that has grown sharply in recent years, particularly due to the increase of the number of foreigners working in Georgia (Russians, Belarusians, and Ukrainians).
According to him, 200 to 300 percent growth in the IT sector has certainly boosted the economy, but at the same time, many of these workers don’t pay taxes and contribute little in the way of social payments.
As Janiashvili also added, rising food prices and high levels of emigration are still the reasons of concern, despite Georgia’s overall strong growth rate. According to him, the impact of job growth depends on which sectors expand and which contract.
For instance, the increase in agriculture, where wages are lowest, makes a limited overall effect. In the opposite way, the increase in construction makes a clearly beneficial multiplier effect across the economy.
Nevertheless, inflation makes average wages appear higher than before. According to the economist, five years ago, 600 lari was considered a decent salary, but now its real value has fallen sharply. It is too early to speak about the improvement of the situation only because of the fact that fewer people earn under 600 lari. Many of them are nearly where they were before.
Economic growth above the regional average and an inflow of foreign professionals have made Georgia’s job market improve steadily since the pandemic years. According to analysts, the overall decline in low-income earners and the expansion of the middle-income group could signify a shift toward a more stable economy.

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