Georgia’s businesses enjoy 18.6b GEL turnover, employ 643,900 people in Q3

(TBILISI) – Businesses in Georgia employed about 643,900 people in the third quarter of 2017, 40.1 percent of which were women and 59.9 percent were men.

The number of people employed in the Georgian business sector increased 6.3 percent compared to the same quarter of 2016, shows the latest data by the National Statistics Office of Georgia (Geostat).

The majority of people employed in the business sector worked in the capital Tbilisi, which is regarded as the country’s economic hub.

Geostat revealed the number of employees by region:
• Tbilisi – 64 percent
• Adjara – 9.3 percent
• Imereti – 7 percent
• Kvemo Kartli – 5.5 percent
• Samegrelo-Zemo-Svaneti – 3.9 percent

The majority of people (41.9 percent) worked in small businesses, with 35.9 percent employed in larger companies and the remaining 22.2 percent in medium-sized businesses.

The average monthly salary for an employed person in the business sector for the third quarter was 1,143.5 GEL ($442.4), up 131 GEL ($48.2)year-on-year.

Gender-pay discrepancies continue to plague Georgia with the average monthly salary for women in the business sector at 837.2 GEL ($307.6), which is 98.2 GEL ($36.3) more compared to 2016.

The amount of money businesses earned depended on the size of their enterprise, with people receiving a larger salary if they were employed in a larger business.

Average monthly salaries based on the size of business:
• Large businesses: 1,178.3 GEL ($435.52) per month
• Medium-sized businesses: 1,240.7 GEL ($458.59)
• Small businesses: 1,051.5 GEL ($388.66)
• The turnover enjoyed by Georgia’s business sector is increasing, reaching 18.6 billion GEL ($6.874 million) in the third quarter of 2017, a 19.7 percent increase year-on-year.

The value of production generated by the business sector also grew to reach 10.1 billion GEL ($3.733 billion), up 23 percent year-on-year.

Large businesses made up the majority of total turnover (41.2 percent), followed by small businesses (35.7 percent), and then medium-sized businesses (23.1 percent), said Geostat.

Additionally large businesses made up 41.6 percent of total production value, small business generated 33.7 percent of total production value and medium-sized businesses made up 24.7 percent of total production value.
(Agenda.ge)