Arab countries need to create 40m jobs by 2020

19 Jul 2010

(MENAFN) A study conducted by Abu Dhabi-based Arab Monetary Fund, said that Arab countries need to create around 40 million jobs by 2020 to address unemployment that has remained the highest in the world despite a stable expansion in the private sector, Emirates Business 24/7 reported.

The unemployment rate in the region remains the highest in the region despite that it was cut from around 14.3 percent in 1990 to about 13.7 percent in 2008. The study said that eradicating unemployment needs intensification of reforms to stimulate economic growth and ensure jobs for unemployed citizens, mostly the youth.

The study revealed that the UAE and other Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) states have maintained the lowest jobless rate in the region but unemployment has largely deteriorated in such low income nations as Mauritania, Djibouti, Somalia, Sudan, Yemen and Palestine.

The study said creation of the 40 million jobs would not be easy following the end of the second oil boom of between 2002 and 2008, adding that the surge in crude export earnings largely boosted growth in the Gulf and other Arab oil producers and at the same time increased financial transfers into non-oil Arab nations.

GCC nation had the lowest jobless rate in the region in 2008, with Qatar having the best record at only 0.5 percent.

The rate was as low as 1.2 percent in Bahrain, 1.3 percent in Kuwait and 3.7 percent in the UAE. Medium jobless rates were put at 8.2 percent in Lebanon, 8.4 percent in Syria, 8.8 percent in Egypt, 9.6 percent in Morocco and 10 percent in Saudi Arabia and Libya.

Djibouti had the highest jobless rate of 59 percent while it was also as high as 25 percent in Somalia, 22 percent in Mauritania, 21.6 percent in Palestine and 15.9 percent in Iraq and Yemen.