What predicts job satisfaction in Georgia?
[This article was published on the Caucasus Data Blog, a joint effort of CRRC Georgia and OC Media. It was written by Makhare Atchaidze, a researcher at CRRC Georgia. The views presented in this article do not represent the views of CRRC Georgia or any related entity.]
Unemployment remains one of the most frequently cited concerns among Georgians. But how satisfied with their jobs are those who are employed?
Public opinion polling consistently shows that the most important issue facing the country is unemployment. While official data suggests an unemployment rate of around 17%, Caucasus barometer survey data suggests that only 40% consider themselves employed.
While unemployment is clearly an issue, a secondary point is the quality of jobs available: a third of the unemployed (36%) reported that they do not work because available jobs do not pay enough, and 61% reported that suitable work is hard to find on a 2018 survey.
The results of the 2019 Caucasus Barometer survey suggest that people who are working tend to be moderately satisfied. Half (47%) of those who considered themselves employed or self-employed (37%) reported they were moderately satisfied with their work. By comparison, 37% of people expressed a positive attitude towards their job and 16% a negative attitude.
Women were nine percentage points more likely than men to report being satisfied with their job.
People with tertiary education were 17 percentage points more likely to be satisfied with their job than those that have vocational education and 11 points more satisfied than those that have a high school degree or less.
There were no significant differences between people of different ages, marital status and ethnicities or between settlement types in terms of satisfaction.
Aside from demographics, job satisfaction is also correlated with income, employment sector, and knowledge of English.
People with lower incomes tend to be less satisfied. Those whose personal monthly incomes were between $51–$100 were less likely to be satisfied with their jobs than those whose income was more than $101. The data shows that dissatisfaction is almost three times less likely when income exceeds $101.
People who work in the public sector (including international organisations and NGOs) tend to be more satisfied with their jobs (58%), than those who work in the private sector (34%).
The data indicated that people who likely have higher skill jobs tend to be more satisfied with their work.
Having a higher level of knowledge of English was associated with greater job satisfaction, while higher-level computer skills were not. This is despite a strong correlation of around 50% between computer skills and English language knowledge.
Note: In some cases in the above, figures may not sum to 100%. This is due to rounding error.
The above data suggests that women and people with more education were more likely to report being satisfied with their jobs. This was also true of people working in the public sector and those with higher levels of English language knowledge.
This suggests that those in higher-skilled jobs were more satisfied though not always, as the data on computer skills shows.
The data used in this article is available here. Replication code for the above analysis is available here.
Home appliances in the South Caucasus: Purchasing trends, 2000-2013
An interesting implication of the 2014 census: Georgia is likely an upper middle income country
Income Levels in Georgia from 2008 to 2013
Health in the South Caucasus
Russia, Georgians, and the State
Well-being of the elderly in the South Caucasus: A problem today, a bigger problem tomorrow
The world population is getting older, and this trend will likely continue as a result of decreasing mortality and declining fertility. International organizations predict that the aging of the population will cause economic problems in countries that already have difficulties in providing proper welfare for the elderly. The countries of the South Caucasus are no exception in this regard.A taxi driver’s tale, Part 1: Social status in the Georgian labor market
A taxi driver’s tale, Part 2: The poverty of social status in Georgia
This blog post examines how social status is associated with individual and household well-beingAspects of Georgian Nationalism
Happiness in Georgia
Common Challenges Facing the Elderly in Georgia
Paternalism in Georgia
Finding a good job in Georgia
Living day-to-day: How are fatalism and economic prosperity interrelated in Georgia?
Georgians Have High Hopes but Little Information about the Association Agreement with the EU
The Wave of the Future: Optimism, Pessimism and Fatalism in Georgia
Active and Employed
SME Performance in Georgia and Armenia: Part 1
SME Performance in Georgia and Armenia: Part 2
Trends in the Data: Declining trust in the banks in Georgia
The last few years have been turbulent for Georgia’s national currency, the Lari (GEL), the value of which started to decline in November 2014. While in October 2014 one US dollar traded for GEL 1.75, since February 2015 to date, the exchange rate has fluctuated between GEL 2 and 2.5 per dollar. Needless to say, the depreciation of the Lari has been widely covered by the media, and although it had numerous causes, a number of organizations and people were blamed for the devaluation. With this background in mind, this blog post looks at how reported trust in banks has changed in recent years in Georgia, using CRRC’s Caucasus Barometer (CB) survey data.Employment and income in Georgia: Differences by educational attainment
Household income and consumption patterns in Georgia
Public Attitudes in Georgia: CRRC Polling Results
ODA – CRRC Data Analysis Online
PERCEIVED POVERTY IN GEORGIA: RESULTS OF THE 2011 CAUCASUS BAROMETER
The 2011 Caucasus Barometer asked the Georgian population, “Relative to most of the households around you, would you describe the current economic condition of your household as very good, good, fair, poor or very poor?Insight to Georgian Households | CRRC Data on Economic Wellbeing in the Caucasus
Levels of trust in the banks in Georgia: Changes over the past two years
Why do so many Armenians leave Armenia?
Inflation in Armenia? | Lecture by IMF Representative
Doing business in Azerbaijan: easy in theory
Credit Crisis in the Caucasus?
Labor Dynamics in Armenia | Youth Unemployment
Unemployment in Azerbaijan: Beyond the Economic Consequences
Political Events in Georgia | Source of Dissatisfaction?
We normally leave political analysis to the many other qualified commentators. However, given current events, it is interesting to see that our Data Initiative shows that ever since 2004 there was a powerful trend of disenchantment in Georgia. Below, see the responses we received when asking "Do you think that things in our country are moving in the right direction?" Blue is positive, yellow negative. The data is for Tbilisi.Debt in Georgia: People living in worse-off households report having personal debt more often
According to CRRC’s 2017 Caucasus Barometer (CB) survey, 46% of the population of Georgia report having personal debt. Although having debt is not necessarily a bad thing, since it can enable investment to help improve a person’s economic conditions, a close look at the CB 2017 data suggests that many people in Georgia take on debt to cover basic expenses.Women Significantly Less Likely to Go Out to Eat in Georgia
Busy restaurants and cafes are a common sight in Georgia, and CRRC’s Caucasus Barometer data suggest that restaurants and cafes have become busier over the last five years. While 27% of Georgia’s population reported going to a restaurant in 2012, five years later 50% did. There is an upward trend for both men and women, yet the data also suggests there is a significant gender gap. Taking into account other social and demographic characteristics, women are significantly less likely to go to restaurants than men.Grit among young people in Georgia
Angela Duckworth’s concept grit has gained a great deal of attention in recent years. Grit, described as some combination of perseverance and passion, has gained this attention, because the data suggest it is associated with a number of positive outcomes like employment and completion of education. In 2018, CRRC-Georgia measured the grit of over 2500 young people (15-35) within a baseline evaluation for World Vision’s SAY YES Skills for Jobs project (funded by the European Union within EU4YOUTH program) which is taking place in Mtskheta, Akhaltsikhe, Adigeni, Kutaisi, Zestaponi, Bagdati, Senaki, and Zugdidi. The data suggest that grit is good predictor of positive outcomes in Georgia as is it is in other contexts.The Easterlin Paradox and Happiness U-curve in Georgia
Two of the more prominent findings from the study of happiness are that money does not buy it (up to a point) and that young and old people are happier than those in between. That money does not buy happiness is often referred to as the Easterlin Paradox. It highlights that between and within countries happiness increases with wealth, but only up to a certain point, at which increases in wealth are associated with marginal gains in happiness. That the elderly and young are happier is referred to as the happiness U-curve. This finding has been found to hold in the West, but not in the former Soviet space, where the elderly are the least happy. This blog looks at these phenomenon in Georgia.Drugs for desert? Biggest monthly household expenses in Georgia
The economy remains the main concern for people in Georgia. Together with the consumer price index and USD-GEL exchange rate rising, average household expenditures also have increased over the last couple of years. Meanwhile, according to recent data only 10% of the population has any savings. Although household expenditures have increased, what are people spending money on? The most recent CRRC-NDI survey from summer 2019 asked questions about household expenditures which provide a sense about what people spend money on in Georgia as well as who spends more on different categories of goods and services.Attitudes towards the new banking regulations
The share of the public with loans from formal financial institutions doubled from 2011 to 2016 according to World Bank Group’s analysis based on Integrated Household Survey in Georgia. The July 2019 CRRC/NDI survey data suggests that about half of the population has a loan. To address perceived over-indebtedness, on 1 January, 2019 the National Bank of Georgia introduced new regulations, restricting lending without more extensive analysis of a consumer’s solvency. The analysis includes looking at an individual’s income, expenses and total obligations, and determination of debtors’ capacity to service their loans without significant financial difficulties.The economic and educational consequences of child marriage in Georgia
Widely condemned as a violation of human rights, child marriage is associated with negative health outcomes — both physical and psychological. Aside from these clear issues, a growing body of research suggests child marriage also has economic consequences for both the women who marry under the age of 18 and society at large.Grit in Georgia
Grit, the idea that passion and perseverance are important determinants of success aside from intelligence, has gained widespread attention in recent years. This stems from the fact that grit is a strong predictor of a number of outcomes like employment and income in life. Previous analysis on this blog suggests that the grit scale is also a strong predictor of employment in Georgia among young people in a select number of rural areas. Whether this works on a nationally representative sample is however an open question. So too is the question what predicts grit in Georgia. This blog uses data from CRRC Georgia’s January 2020 omnibus survey to address these questions.Who’s thinking about temporary and permanent migrating?
Are Lion’s Whelps Equally Lions?!
In Georgia, tradition has it that a son stays in the family and is responsible for taking care of his parents in their old age. Consequently, tradition also gives parents’ property to their sons. This limits women’s access to economic resources. New data from Caucasus Barometer shows that regardless of whether people think that a son or daughter or both equally should take care of their parents in their old age, many believe the son should still get the inheritance.Lockdown vs re-opening the economy in Georgia
As the number of new daily confirmed cases is again on the rise, we look at how people felt about the anti-coronavirus restrictions in May.
Aside from the public health situation, COVID-19 has led to rising unemployment, reduced incomes, and food insecurity in Georgia. As the number of new daily confirmed cases is again on the rise, the Caucasus Datablog takes a look at how people felt about the anti-coronavirus restrictions when they were at their height.
People in Georgia are highly uncertain about their economic future
Across various demographic groups, Georgians are uncertain about what their economic futures might hold, with those from lower-income backgrounds more uncertain than those with a higher income.What makes people feel insecure in Georgia?
A CRRC analysis found that Georgians who feel insecure in Georgia mostly attribute this to economic insecurity, but also express concern about a wider array of harder security issues.Georgia has faced numerous crises in recent years; from the pandemic, to the results of the war in Ukraine, via political controversy and uncertainty.