Authorities in Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries need to redouble their efforts to ensure the availability of suitable jobs for a growing population.

By one account, the average population in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman and Bahrain is growing by 2.6 per cent annually.

According to the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), the GCC population is forecast to increase from 39.6 million in 2008 to 41.4 million in 2010, further rising to 47.5 million in 2015 and then 53.4 million in 2020.

In other words, the combined population is expected to grow by one third in a span of 11 years.

The EIU report entitled The GCC in 2020: The Gulf and its People points out the implications of a growing population.

According to the report, these implications raise questions about labour, infrastructure, immigrants and women.

Youth or those below 15 years of age would make up around one third of the GCC population by 2020, from nearly 29 per cent in 2008.

The difference partly reflects the growth of an ageing population thanks to an increased access to advanced medical services and treatment.

Undoubtedly, authorities must address the daunting task of creating a sufficient number of jobs meeting the expectations of locals.

Distorted view

Certainly, a good number of new entrants tend to have a distorted view of the job market, and have set their sights on working in governmental departments in return for decent pay.

Many relate desired salaries to their spending needs rather than the market value of their services.

Yet, the public sector could not sustain many of the new entrants due to overstaffing. For instance, some 92 per cent of Kuwaiti nationals work for different governmental departments.

Kuwait, certainly, cannot continue the practice of allocating more than three quarters of budgetary spending to recurrent expenditures, primarily for salaries and benefits.

The opportunity cost involves foregoing spending on the infrastructure.

Another reason for limited offers of new jobs in the public sector relates to economic liberalisation by increasingly transferring duties to profit-seeking private sector firms.

Recently, Bahrain revealed plans to privatise postal services and to seek international management for a newly built governmental hospital.

Population growth is particularly disturbing for Saudi Arabia, where the authorities are under pressure to create 160,000 jobs annually. One solution that has been proffered calls for authorities to restrict some jobs to locals.

Over the past few years, Saudi officials banned expatriates from working in more than 30 employment categories.

The job titles in these categories include training managers, public relations officers, administrative assistants, purchase managers, secretaries, operators, warehouse supervisors, debt collectors, customer service accountants, tellers, postmen, data handlers, librarians, book sellers, ticket kiosk keepers, taxi drivers, auto salesmen, janitors, internal mail handlers and tour guides.

Saudi Arabia and the UAE make up more than three quarters of the total GCC population — a phenomenon partly reflecting their economic weight.

Job challenges

More specifically, residents of Saudi Arabia and the UAE constitute 63 per cent and 13 per cent of the total GCC population, respectively. Yet some 72 per cent of the Kingdom's population are locals, a fact that adds to job challenges faced by nationals.

In contrast, immigrants make up 87 per cent of the UAE population.

In fact, immigrants comprise the majority of the population in three other GCC countries, namely 87 per cent in Qatar, 69 per cent in Kuwait and 52 per cent in Bahrain.

Under pressure from elected lawmakers, Bahraini officials admitted that locals were the minority in their own country.

Nevertheless, the lack of proper demographics is a problem in several GCC countries. The availability of comprehensive statistics represents the starting point for the proper planning of infrastructure needs, notably health, schools, and road networks, let alone jobs.

Population data should never be politicised.

 

The writer is a member of parliament in Bahrain