How to look for and find work in Georgia? How does the jobs market look like in Georgia form foreigners perspective? Can you find work with no knowledge of Georgian language? And how big the salary you may expect?
All these questions we’ll cover in today’s episode of the Caucasus Podcast. The questions about how to find work in Georgia and jobs market in Georgia you ask us a lot so we’ve decided to prepare a dedicated episode about it.
This is next podcast episode in the series for people who think about moving to Georgia for shorter or longer stay. You may also listen to previous ones:
Formal and legal requirements for working in Georgia
As always in this series we kindly remind you that there are always some legal and formal requirements you need to fulfill when thinking about working in Georgia, i.e. being employed by a Georgian company as an employee. The best is to do it before trying to find work in Georgia as it may appear less or more time-consuming to fulfill all the requirements.
The best place to look for all the requirements, visa, permits etc. is the official websites of Georgian government and dedicated ministries and agencies. Do not rely on the opinions of the internet fora because they may be not precise, outdated or simply not applicable to your case.
Jobs market in Georgia for foreigners
Let’s start with the initial assumptions. We’ll be covering the jobs market from the perspective of foreigner, someone who decides to move to Georgia, the country, to live here and work.
Very often in these situations you may know few languages, e.g. English, German, Russian, French, Chinese etc. but very often you don’t speak Georgian or you are not fluent enough to work mainly using Georgian.
And from this perspective we’ll be talking today.
How to find work in Georgia?
Firstly I feel I do need to underline this because I have seen too many stories with no happy ending . When you decide to start working for a company in Georgia no matter big or small always get some kind of legally binding agreement and /or make sure it’s really trustworthy .
One of the problems of Georgian employment market is the so called gray zone, so although you work, should get the legally binding agreement, contract of some sort, someone should pay taxes and pension fund for you, you work without any agreements.
Being foreigner, not part of any family, local group and not even knowing language if things goes south you have no or very limited possibility to fight for your money, rights etc.
Ok having said this let’s move on to the main part – where to look for work in Georgia?
Ask Georgian friends and family about job openings
One of the reasons why I always advise to get some Georgian friends when moving to Georgia is because Georgians have very wide social nets and put trust into people they know. So maybe the job is not posted online but someone knows their friends, cousins former classmate has an open position.
As a society Georgians put the highest level of trust into their groups of family and friends – more about the reasons behind it and the researches about this topic we talk in the course – Georgia – modern life and traditions.
That is why still this is a good way to spread the news and ask around.
The jobs portals in Georgia – where to look for job openings?
The other option is to regularly look for and go through the job offers published on the job portals. At present there are couple of them, reliable ones where both smaller companies and the biggest employers e.g. Sokar, Georgian banks etc. post their job offers.
The list of the most popular job portals in Georgia:
- jobs.ge
- hr.ge
- ss.ge/ka/jobs
- myjobs.ge
- gamarjobs.ge
When preparing this episode I analyzed 5 different portals with jobs. I did it as I were foreigner not knowing Georgian so I focused on few aspects:
- If there were any offers in English (not just in Georgian)
- If there was an English version of the website
- If there was any info about the salary and how much
- What type of offers there were
The results to be honest were not really optimistic for any foreigner coming to Georgia not being relocated by the company from their country or not having the job contract in hand already before coming to Georgia.
On 3 of the portals there were either no language switching button to English so you should scroll the website in Georgian hoping something in English would appear.
On some websites although there was the English version of the website, the vast majority of the offers had just the title translated and comment that the rest of the offer is available in Georgian only.
I scrolled through hundreds of offers and even if there were very few fully in English, in majority of cases there was requirement of either fluent Georgian or Russian, or both. I found really few that had no such requirements.
That was a bit pessimistic perspective for jobs in Georgia so maybe now a bit more optimistic pieces of information when you’re thinking about moving to Georgia and trying to find work in Georgia.
What are the places where foreigners may find work in Georgia?
There are some areas where you may try looking. One of the areas is being a language teacher, e.g. working in private schools, language schools or being a tutor. Keep in mind that for several years already the demand has been a bit lower than the supply. Of course if you are great, professional teacher with tons of experience it will be much easier for you than if you want to start from scratch in this field.
Also when you think about private tutoring keep in mind that the hourly rates are low as Georgians on average are not (yet) a very rich society. Hence many tutors live in Georgia and teach online.
One of the options is freelance reporter, journalist, blogger, youtuber from Georgia but the fact is that you need to know the country a bit and also you never know if and when the put work will pay off so you may try it as a side hustle but I would not keep it as a Plan A.
The other option is to look for work in the companies that help the foreigners or work in tourism. For that you would also probably need to get to know a bit of Georgia or some regulations. However this is also the area some foreigners work or open own companies and assist other non-Georgians in real estate, travel, daily life situations, cleaning and housekeeping and many other.
Last but not least is the work in international organizations that operate in Georgia, for example UN, EU monitoring mission or donor organizations that have field offices in Georgia. It may be quite hard to get a job there but if your professional experience is somehow connected with it you may always give it a try. However please note that the openings are not that often so it’s good to monitor situation. Pun not intended 😉
How much can you earn when working in Georgia?
Money is the topic we cannot omit in this episode. That’s why in the last part of today’s episode I’ll share some statistics. According to GeoStat – official Statistics Agency of Georgia – the average salary is approx. 1900 lari gross and the mode is approx. on 1400-1500 lari.
What does it mean for your home budget when living in Georgia?
The statistics I have mentioned are for the first half of 2024 but although we record it in September 2024 there is not that much of a change. The average cost of living in Georgia (without renting a flat or a home) is on average 1500 lari. Here we talk about basic stuff, not included wining and dining, trips and other activities in your free time.
For Tbilisi it is estimated a bit higher – for 1700 per person a month. As I said the bare minimum of living not including renting an apartment.
That is why often Georgian families (3 generations) decide to live together as it is simply cheaper or I would say more affordable.
The highest pay within the last year was observed in IT, marketing and communications where some say about even 4000 lari a month and the lowest in education, agriculture and waste management. Keep in mind that we talk here about the average and mode values so you may find job with higher but also lower salary.
These were the main topics as far as looking for and trying to find work in Georgia is concerned. I do hope it gave you a perspective on how the Georgian jobs market looks like and maybe helped in making some decisions about your future work. If you know anyone considering working in Georgia and trying to find work in Georgia, you may share the episode of the Caucasus podcast with them as well.