The Current State of Labor Market Development in Georgia in the context of tourism

Abstract

The Paper identifies the reasons for the imbalance between the demand and provision at the labor market and studies and analyzes the employment components in tourism in view of the elimination of imbalance.

The analysis reveals that despite the high unemployment index in Georgia, tourism and hospitality spheres suffer from the lack of qualified and experienced personnel. After graduation, the alumni encounter two main problems: absence of demand for their professions at the labor market and/or failure of their qualification and experience to meet the labor market requirements.

It is noteworthy that the duty to provide tourism with human resources is first of all related to the educational reforms conducted recently by the Ministry of Education and Science. Inefficiency and incapacity of the reforms in tourism education and obtainment of the professions condition scarcity of the highly qualified personnel and hence, the lower level of the touristic product and service, which is in direct connection with an imbalance between the demand and provision at the labor market in tourism.

Incompliance of the level of tourism education with the challenges existent in the world limits the quality of the tourist product and service entailing sundry more years of restriction of competitiveness of Georgia and especially at the tourist markets of the neighboring countries.