Azernews.Az

By Sabina Idayatova

What is your profession?

This is the question which we frequently hear in our everyday life. Sometimes people are quite proud to answer this question, sometimes not... unfortunately. What is the reason? Perhaps, it is all about to what extent a given profession is popular.

So, while thinking about a profession, you have to think about its popularity.

In a general sense, profession is a kind of activity that requires a person to be educated, have certain knowledge in the related field, to posses the necessary skills, ethics, good qualities and so on. Profession is the main identifying indicator of a person's role in society that allows every member of the community to achieve important life goals while maintaining social responsibility and discipline.

Furthermore, development and success of the society depends on beneficial activity of the people. A successful career path begins with the selection of the right profession. Being professional in a certain job also presumes accountability, profound knowledge of the specialty, as well as high ethical standards. People with the mentioned qualifications tend to get highly paid jobs that increase their quality of life.

Reviewing the labor market of Azerbaijan, a brief exposition of the existing economic situation is as follows. According to the State Statistics Committee, around 4.678 million people were employed in Azerbaijan as of Dec.1, 2012.

Analyzing the job opportunities and working environment in Azerbaijan, we should also find out who are the appropriate candidates. Considering the socio-demographic profile as well as the historical and cultural background of the country where a woman played the role of homemaker, while a man is the bread-winner in the family, even nowadays men dominate. However, in recent years there is an increasing tendency of hiring of women.

According to the State Statistics Committee, as of December 1, around 37,100 people were registered as unemployed in Azerbaijan, which has a population of 9.3 million. 42.1 percent of them are women.

The minimum age for employment in Azerbaijan is 18 years. The recent declining employment rates for young people are likely to be due to the decreasing demand for labor generally and youth foregoing work for higher education. Youth may decide to pursue education because of unpromising employment prospects and the growing need for more education to be successful in the workplace.

According to the latest amendments to the Labor Code and the Civil Service law made in 2011, the retirement age is defined as 65 years.

The exceptions are those who have been granted special state awards, honorary titles, people who have served to the development of society. The said people are allowed to continue working after 70, in the sphere of healthcare, education or culture.

Talking about the educational background of today's Azerbaijani candidates, we observe that a large percentage of job applicants who are not satisfed with their bachelor's degree continue their higher education at master`s degree level. Those people who are ambitious in academics even go further to gain higher degrees.

Most of the employers while announcing job vacancies require knowledge of at least three languages - Azerbaijani, English and Russian. Besides the knowledge of the said languages, Azerbaijani job seekers speak German, French and Turkish.

New jobs in the oil and gas industry involve a lot of people with high salaries. The prevailing jobs of the oil sector are procurement and sales manager, import and export manager, oil and gas engineers, etc. The salary of oil industry employees can reach several thousand manats.

The second fastest growing sector in Azerbaijan's labor market is banking, which involves different professions such as credit specialist, finance, insurance, accounting managers. Unlike some 10 years ago, when youths tried to build careers in diplomacy, advocacy, teaching, nowadays the banking sector is more popular. Compared to the period 10-15 years ago, public service has also become popular among the young people today. Although the average salary for people holding these positions is 300 manats ($ 370), public service is considered to be one of the priorities for future working activity of young people.

The demand for designers, IT specialists, marketing managers, construction workers has increased lately.

The salary itself is one of the key social and economic indicators, which sufficiently enough indicates the level of prosperity of the working part of the population. According to the State Statistics Committee, the average monthly salary in Azerbaijan in January-October 2012 was 390.2 manats or 9 percent more than in the same period of 2011.

Nevertheless, the people who are accomplished doctors, lawyers, architects, economists, and IT specialists earn a few thousand manats as highly skilled professionals.

Jobs.Day.Az has compiled a ranking of the best companies that job applicants would like to work in. British Petroleum with 27 percent topped the ranking, while 13 percent of the respondents cited the state oil company SOCAR, making the company second on the list. Pasha Holding and cellular operator Azercell Telekom are both in third place, with 8 percent. Ranked last among the top five companies, Azerbaijan Airlines was cited by 6 percent of those polled.

Azersun Holding has recently become popular among job seekers, but was not ranked among the top five companies.

Respondents also specified what criteria job seekers are guided by while choosing companies they would like to work in. Career opportunities turned out to be the most frequent answer of the respondents (53.6 percent). Another important factor was the financial issue, with 53.9 percent of the respondents seeing wages as a priority. Prestige of the company was in third place with 44.4 percent.

The majority of job applicants (78 percent) prefer full-time jobs, but there is a proportion of employees (9 percent) who agree to work part-time, and 7 percent are ready for flexible jobs.

The main criteria for full-time jobs is the desire to feel the stability, as well as more convenience in fulfilling their tasks during the day. Temporary jobs are mainly in the oil industry, hospitals, hotel and restaurant business.

Sustainable economic development increases employment opportunities available in the fast-growing and competitive Azerbaijani economy, but there is also illegal employment. In accordance with the orders issued by the President, the government has been stepping up control over the issue.

Working illegally or without an employment contract harmfully affects the worker himself, and also often causes tax evasion, depriving the state budget of large amounts of funds. According to the Labor Code of Azerbaijan, every employer must register employment history for a new employee.

It is worth mentioning that the number of employed people in the country as of September 1, 2012 was over 4.63 million, but only 1,381,000 of them had contracts with the employer.

The main problem related to illegal work is the lack of proper retirement benefits in the future. The Ministry of Taxes detected more than 5,000 employees working without employment contracts in the first half of this year and imposed fines on employers.

Of course, many people prefer comfortable and highly paid jobs. Fortunately, there is a wide choice of employment in Azerbaijan, and most people can find jobs close to the soul.