The occupations of an engineer and a medical nurse are the least demanded on Armenia’s labor market, while builders and service sector workers are in most demand, according to the data of the State Employment Service that its director Sona Harutyunyan reported Thursday.

According to the agency’s data, 99,300 unemployed were registered in Armenia during 2009 (up from 74,700 registered in 2008, thus showing a 7.1 percent increase during the crisis year), and 72 percent of them are women, while 21 percent are young adults. A total of 9,400 jobless people received jobs during last year, another 4,960 people were employed in so-called temporary jobs -- street cleaning, snow removal, etc.

About 30,000 people in Armenia are on the dole, with their unemployment benefit payment amounting to 11,000 drams ($29). People who apply to the employment agency receive unemployment money for several months, during which period the agency tries to find and offer jobs. If an applicant declines a job offer three times his or her aid is discontinued. The Armenian government has allocated 1.4 billion drams (about $3.7 million) for unemployment benefit payments.

True unemployment figures are hard to determine in Armenia, where anyone who owns land is considered to be “employed”.

In provinces most vacancies are also for builders, teachers, doctors, accountants and waiters. But the vacancies are filled slowly for two main reasons – insufficient professional skills of the unemployed or low wages offered by employers, said Harutyunyan.