World Insights Bringing You best of world at one placeThe real answer is for private and public sector firms to better nurture young graduate or pre-graduate national recruits
The booming economies in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) hide a serious social problem of growing national unemployment. In Saudi Arabia, the average is just down to 11.8 per cent in the second quarter of 2013, while the UAE reported a 14 per cent unemployment rate in 2009.
Many of the young people in these populations are finding it hard to get a job. This is because most public sector employers have gone a long way to attract the best GCC nationals coming on the job market, and it is now more challenging for private companies to do the same. This may be because the young workers’ expectations are high, but often it is because the private sector employers are not ready to start with young trainees as they have got used to recruiting experienced people from abroad.
It is also true that the unemployment numbers may be inflated by those Gulf nationals who do not need to work. This factor is one reason why unemployment rates are so high among women, reaching 35 per cent in Saudi Arabia and 28 per cent in the UAE, according to a recent report by International Monetary Fund.
Nonetheless, the demographics mean that the GCC labour force is set to grow by 3 to 4 per cent each year as the 65 per cent of national populations that are under 25 years, come on to the job market. This means that an additional 1.2 to 1.6 million GCC citizens will be looking for work by 2018 and the quick answer is that these citizens will be able to replace expatriates.
Gulf News
