Armenia‘s unemployment rate fell only slightly in 2025, declining to 11.8% from 13.3% in 2024. At the same time, according to the country’s Statistical Committee, wages continued to rise, with the average monthly salary increasing by 5.6% over the same period to 303,140 drams ($828).
Compared with 2021, the average nominal monthly salary has increased by 48.6%, the number of employees has grown by 22.4%, and the unemployment rate has fallen by 2.7 percentage points.
Employment remains highest in the wholesale and retail trade sectors, as well as in education and manufacturing. By contrast, employment is lower in the arts and culture, scientific research, and real estate sectors.
An analysis of online job platforms shows that employers are currently seeking couriers, waiters, accountants, assistants, sales and marketing specialists, and fundraising professionals.
At the same time, job seekers are increasingly drawn to international, foreign, and joint ventures, attracted by both higher salaries and better working environments.
- ‘Parent hour’ and flexible schedules: Armenia changes labour code
- Work-life balance for women in Armenia: how to create family-friendly working conditions
- Armenia to support employers who hire people in need
- Yerevan youth leave city to work in village schools
“The labour market has become more coordinated”
Until 2016, Naira Piloyan ran an employment agency that helped many people find jobs and earned a reputation as a reliable partner for local organisations. Over the past decade, however, she says the labour market has changed. Employers now search for candidates through online platforms, using their own social media pages and job websites. As a result, she had to close her agency. She now works as a human resources specialist at a pharmaceutical company.
She says every medium-sized and large company in Armenia now employs HR specialists. They use online platforms and professional networks to find qualified candidates.
“I closely follow developments in the labour market. From my own experience, I can say that local professionals have become much better at presenting themselves during the hiring process. Employers have also become more selective when recruiting staff. The whole process is now far more streamlined and coordinated,” she says.
At the same time, she notes that personal connections and recommendations from friends or acquaintances still influence hiring decisions.
However, serious companies have realised that hiring unqualified staff creates a “time bomb” for their future development.
Instead, they rely on candidates’ experience, references from previous employers and personal interviews.
“Over the past few years, salaries at our company have increased by around 30% on average. Higher levels of professionalism among staff have largely driven that increase. Every employee takes professional development courses or retrains in a new field. As people gain knowledge and experience, they expect higher pay. If they don’t receive the salary they believe they deserve, they start looking for another job. That staff turnover has become a major challenge for large companies,” the HR specialist explains.
She says employers have also started investing more in their employees’ skills. Many companies now pay for foreign language courses, mainly English, as well as training abroad in manufacturing, technology and other fields.
She believes this growing coordination has improved the quality of Armenia’s labour market. When someone from another company applies for a job with her employer, she can now openly discuss the candidate’s abilities and professional qualities with HR managers at their previous workplace.
“In the past, asking someone for an opinion about a job applicant felt awkward. Now I simply send an email and receive a reply within a few days. The only real difficulty today is finding highly specialised professionals and technical staff. Problems usually arise when we urgently need to hire someone like a driver, security guard or cleaner. Candidates for these jobs tend to be very conservative. For example, if they need to stay just 10 minutes beyond the end of their shift, they often show little flexibility. Some may even leave work during the day without informing anyone.”
According to her, wages for these positions have risen by a larger percentage than salaries for many higher-skilled professions, including finance specialists and translators.
Working conditions are more attractive at foreign companies
Ilona Khachatryan is a logistics specialist. She now works for an American company and earns four times more than she did two years ago in the same role at a local firm. But salary is only part of the reason she left. She says unhealthy relations with management at her former company also played a major role. More broadly, she is critical of hiring practices and personnel management at many local organisations.
“At the company where I worked, it was extremely difficult to receive the bonuses that management itself had promised. To avoid paying them, they would even falsify hourly timesheets.
I applied for jobs at other local companies as well. I attended interviews and then waited for months without hearing back. Even if they decide not to hire you, shouldn’t they at least tell you? After all, you invest your time and effort preparing for those interviews. Foreign companies treat candidates much more fairly. They make transparent hiring decisions. If they decide not to hire someone, they explain in detail why they cannot move forward with the candidate.”
Ilona says her current employer hired her after the first interview. The company immediately explained the salary, holiday entitlement, employment rights and job responsibilities.
“Hearing the words ‘thank you for your work’ genuinely motivates me. It gives me energy and makes me work with greater enthusiasm and commitment. And when your employer also recognises your achievements, you realise just how undervalued professionals are in the local labour market.”
—