At Thursday's government meeting, Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyan reflected on the poverty updates in Armenia. Referring to the data from the Armenian Statistical Committee, Pashinyan stated that in 2021 Armenia marked some progress in reducing poverty compared to 2020. In contrast, compared to 2019, there is an increase in poverty by 0,1 percentage points. 

"Since 2019, the poverty indicator in Armenia has been measured by a new methodology. That implies that we cannot compare the data before 2019 with the data available after that. The poverty rate by the average poverty line in 2021 was 26.5%, 0.5 percentage points lower than the respective indicator of 27.0% in the previous year. This figure shows that our measures in response to the Covid-19 crisis in 2020 were highly targeted. So, as a result of these measures, we have reduced extreme poverty by half. But since the anti-crisis measures have ended, it has increased a bit," Pashinyan said.

Pashinyan also mentioned the issue of labor shortage signals from the private sector even though unemployment reached a historic low, according to recent data. In response to this concern, Labor and Social Affairs Minister Narek Mkrtchyan noted: “9,800 job openings are reported. This year the number of registered unemployed people is 50,400, which edged down from 8,000 in 2021. In the next three years, there will be a need for workers in agriculture, construction, trade, information technology, transportation, and health care”.

According to the poverty report data by the Armenian Statistical Committee, labor-related indicators remained stagnant between 2020 and 2021. Nearly 40 percent of the population lives in a household lacking access to decent jobs, and 35% of households face underemployment. In 2020-2021, total income and aggregate consumption inequality slightly increased for the whole population. Inequality indicators measured by the Gini coefficient indicate that polarization of the population is more profound in terms of income distribution than consumption distribution.

According to the Statistical Committee, Armenia’s highest poverty rate, 35.8%, was registered in 2010.