GCC officials discussed the growing unemployment at a Feb. 2 conference
by the Emirates Centre for Strategic Studies and Research in the United Arab
Emirates. Speakers said up to two million university graduates could become
part of the long-term unemployed in such countries as Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman,
Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
"This is a real threat to socio-economic stability and balance," Obeid
Mohammed Al Saidi, dean of Qatar's Higher College of Technology, said.
Al Saidi said about 435,000 university graduates were unemployed in the
six GCC states. He said this could grow by nearly five-fold over the next
decade.
Officials said the jobless rate among university graduates has risen
sharply over the last three years as more Gulf Arab youngsters completed
their higher education. The biggest increase has been seen in such countries
as Oman and the UAE.
"For the past 20 to 30 years, we have been thinking the problem was the
education system and thus focused our effort on reforms to education," Abdul
Khaleq Abdullah, professor of political science at UAE University, said.
"But this was wrong. It was putting the cart before the horse."
Bahraini Labor Minister Majid Al Alawi attributed the sharp rise in
employment to universities, which he said were not providing skills required
for the job market. Al Alawi said the private sector, which employs most of
the 17 million foreigners in GCC states, has also ignored Gulf university
graduates.
"They [foreign laborers] are a threat to our existence," Al Alawi said.
The nightmare for GCC states, officials said, was the likelihood that
foreigners remain in the region even after they stop working. They said few
foreigners have left Gulf Arab countries despite the suspension of scores of
major projects.
"Whoever thinks this foreign manpower in the region comes for a project
and leaves on its completion is wrong," Al Alawi said. "They come to stay.
This is the way countries were lost and we, in the Gulf, are facing the same
threat. If this is not happening now, it will happen in the next
generation."
