Labour Markets

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Labour Markets Youth Employment in the Arab
States

• Prepared by Tariq A. Haq
• Employment Development and Strategies Officer
• ILO Regional Office for Arab States, Beirut
• Presented by Joop Theunissen

UNDP/UNDESA Sub-Regional Workshop Youth Policies
Strategies in the context of the MDGs Rabat,
Morocco, 6-8 July 2005
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Outline

• Youth employment trends and indicators
• Global
• Regional
• Policy responses to youth employment challenge

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Youth-specific difficulties in transition from
education to employment

• Lack of employment experience of youth
• Insider-outsider effects related to labour
  market
• Wage and job expectations of graduates mismatch
  between aspirations labour market realities
• Quality relevance of education to labour market
• Constraints on self-employment entrepreneurship
  development
• Lack of organization and voice among young women
  and men (where are young members of workers and
  employers associations?)

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Youth statistics-- cross-country differences I

• Activity rates of
• youth (15 24) declined from 70 in 1950 to 59
  in 2000
• adults (25-64) increased from 73 to 79
• Growing participation of youth in education
• Activity rates of young men much higher than
  those of young females but converging (in 1950
  the gender gap was 29.2 percent points, in 2000
  14.9 percent points)

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Youth statistics cross-country differences II

• Activity rates of young people differ by region
  the lowest in Europe, followed by Latin America
  and Northern America, the highest in Asia, Africa
  and Oceania
• Unemployment rates of youth consistently higher
  than the adult unemployment rates, in most
  countries between 2 and 4 times
• In most countries in the world, young women have
  higher unemployment rates than young men

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Country Year Youth UR in Youth UR to adult UR Ratio of youth U in total U
Algeria 1992 n.a. n.a. 65.7
Bahrain 2000 n.a. n.a. 60.7
Egypt 1999 20.4 4.9 59.5
Morocco 1999 15.4 1.6 38.2
UAE 2000 n.a. n.a. 47.0
West Bank and Gaza 2001 n.a. n.a. 35.1
Yemen 1999 n.a. n.a. 48.4
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Arab Regional Economic Context

• Variable, but generally sluggish economic growth
• Labour force growth is higher than both GDP
  growth jobs created
• Unemployment is acute amongst youth, especially
  young women
• Creeping poverty across the region even beyond
  the countries affected by conflict
• Nationalization of workforces in the Gulf with
  implications for young migrant workers in region
• Increased restrictions on labour markets in EU

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High Unemployment for Arab youth

• Around 12.5 million unemployed, coupled with high
  underemployment
• Highest (and increasing) unemployment rates in
  the world, especially for youth
• 2.5 million new youth entrants to the labour
  market annually, expected to rise to 3 million
  during 2000- 2010 need to create jobs for these
  new entrants just to maintain current
  unemployment levels
• Youth unemployment rates are much higher than
  adult unemployment rates, averaging 25.6 in
  2003 (cf. 21.0 in Sub-Saharan Africa)

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Gender Gap in Employment

• Average female unemployment rate of 16.5 was
  5.9 points higher than the male rate of 10.6
  in 2003
• Unemployment for young women in Arab countries
  ranges from 13 in Bahrain to almost 39 in
  Algeria
• Unemployed women are mainly
• young new labour force entrants (with primary
  secondary education)
• laid off workers following restructuring and
  privatization - in Jordan, Morocco, Tunisia and
  Egypt

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A comprehensive employment policy that is
inclusive of youth

• Such policy must be based on reliable economic
  and labour market analysis identifying potentials
  and challenges for young people (requires LMIS)
• Policy and programs need to be better tailored
  toward
• enhancing employability
• promoting employment
• improving social security of young people
• Partnerships!

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Targeted Active Labour Market Policies for Young
Women Men

• Well functioning employment services
• Re-skilling of work force
• bridging the skills gap to match labour supply
  with demand
• linking training programs with employment
• Entrepreneurship training in basic business
  skills, especially for young women and men
• Employment subsidies for disadvantaged youth
  (school drop outs, vulnerable youth, youth with
  disabilities, etc.)

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Young Migrant Workers

• Admitting the reality of migration in receiving
  countries defining a clear and realistic
  strategy and policy for migration, shifting
  emphasis from quantity to quality of expatriates
• Initiating and developing a consultative process
  between sending and receiving countries, based on
  mutual respect and benefit
• More active role for workers organizations to
  defend migrant workers rights
• Public and media awareness on migrant workers
  rights

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THANK YOU!

• FOR MORE INFORMATION ON THIS PRESENTATION
• CONTACT
• Tariq A. Haq
• Employment Development and Strategies Officer
• ILO Regional Office for Arab States, Beirut
• haq_at_ilo.org
• www.ilo.org
• www.ilo.org/youth
• www.ilo.org/yen