The government promises 100 000 new jobs will be created over the next two years from an employment program due to begin in 2008.

On November 10, President Mikheil Saakashvili met with Georgian businessmen and called on them to help the government address the unemployment problem in Georgia.

“My main goal is employment, employment and again employment. I will not give up, I will remind you every minute to create new jobs,” Saakashvili told businessmen.

In part because of the high percentage of subsistence farmers, reliable unemployment figures are difficult to come by. Georgian voters, however, consistently name unemployment as on of their top concerns.

Economist Davit Ebralidze says the president is focusing on the issue of employment to improve his support in the run-up to the snap presidential election in January. Saakashvili has begun campaigning, Ebralidze charges, while the state of emergency prohibits independent media from airing most opposition statements.

“That meeting was part of an election campaign. Not only did he call on businessmen not to sponsor the opposition, but he also called on them to help create jobs, which would improve the government’s image,” Ebralidze said, according to the newspaper Versia.

On November 13, Economic Development Minister Giorgi Arveladze said the government will pay three months’ salaries for apprentices while they get on-the-job training with private companies.

He did not say what the monthly salaries for apprentices would be.