TBILISI, May 5 – Nearly 245,000 socially vulnerable people in Georgia benefited from a state-backed public employment scheme in 2025, according to a new government report.
The figure appears in the 2025 report on employment policy planning and implementation, cited by BPN.
The program covered 54,842 families and 244,895 people last year. If at least one person in a family joined the program, special conditions applied automatically to all family members.
The scheme offered socially vulnerable people work in public services while allowing them to keep their subsistence allowance for four years without re-checking.
A total of 28,686 people registered in the unified database of socially vulnerable persons signed contracts for specific public works. Of them, 16,194 were women and 2,191 were young people.
The report says women made up 56.5% of participants in the public works subprogram, while young people were less represented, at 7.6%.
The largest number of covered families was in Tbilisi, with 9,466 families and 39,924 people. Samegrelo-Zemo Svaneti followed with 8,660 families and 37,153 people, while Imereti had 7,999 families and 36,055 people. Adjara had 6,239 families and 31,418 people.
The report also says 13,489 job seekers registered in the labor market management information system in 2025 under the state employment promotion program. That was 59% more than in 2024, when 8,484 people were registered.
Of the job seekers registered last year, 9,420 were women and 3,706 were young people. The highest numbers were recorded in Samegrelo-Zemo Svaneti and Imereti.
The public employment program for socially vulnerable people started in March 2022. Under the scheme, participants were offered jobs in public services while keeping their social assistance. Each such job paid 300 lari.
The program was discontinued in 2026. Funding was cut by 91 million lari, leaving a final budget of 21.6 million lari. The ruling team said the main reason for ending the scheme was a labor shortage in the job market.
