Introduction
The MENA Countries are the countries in the Middle East and the North Africa. Many of these countries are in the process of developing and some are less developed than others. As emerging economies, these countries are still spending the effort to develop their labor markets and human resources. Considering that the number of youth in the population is an advantage for economic development, the MENA Countries seem to have an advantageous position; however, before making this comment, one needs to analyze the labor markets in these countries.
The basic statistics about unemployment exhibits volatility, and the unemployment rate is comparatively higher in these countries. Almost all of the countries suffer from political and economic instability. The unstable ground causes volatility in all markets including the labor market. Income inequality is a huge issue they need to deal with, and it seems to be that the governments are not taking adequate steps to solve the inequality problem. The economic development is not the primary goal in these countries though the politicians claim that they care it. The political conflicts are the main focus of many people including politicians and bureaucrats. Subsequently, instead of developing real solutions for economic and social problems, implementing ideologically-biased economic and social policies is preferred in these countries.
The unemployment rate among young people is around 11% at average in the world. The MENA countries have a higher rate of almost 30% than the average of the world. Also, the young people with lower education level face much higher unemployment rate. On the other side of the labor market, these countries cannot create new jobs for new generations. The quality of employment offered to young people is mostly not satisfying them. As a result of this, young people accept any job they can find instead of searching for their ideal job. In this paper, I will discuss how labor market organization develops market conditions for young people.
Labor Market Development in the MENA Countries
The workforce in the MENA Countries has limited opportunities due to the not well-developed labor markets. These countries cannot produce their technologies. Some of them are oil importers, and instead of developing their production technology, they import old production technologies from the developed countries. The low-technology production in these countries limits the job opportunities for people. The universities in these countries are ideologically-biased mostly, and young people do not have the opportunity equality to reach education. The universities are relatively more involved in the ideological discussions, and as a result of this, they do not produce information and technology. Subsequently, the labor markets in these countries do not have the potential to develop relatively more satisfying jobs for youth.
The labor markets mostly present old-technology using and low-quality requiring jobs to young people. Young people are unsatisfied with the employment opportunities provided for them. In this case, they prefer staying unemployed for a while more, or they get a job they are not really into it. This situation decreases their productivity and their motivation at work. Also, being hired as a low-quality labor creates new limits in front of building a good career path for them.
The turn-over rate in the MENA Countries is comparatively higher than the developed countries. Many of workers change their jobs frequently, and it causes financial and psychological losses for them. They cannot develop specialization, and they become psychological relatively more invert at workplaces. They hesitate while they make new job applications. They feel forced to follow some rules at the workplace to protect their jobs, and that kills their creativity. Many of the workers in these countries are not given any opportunity to develop their business. In another word, being innovative and creative is not well-promoted.
There exist relatively fewer jobs in the labor markets. Therefore, there is a little possibility to reach a good job for young people. Getting a good job requires having good social connections. Nepotism is a general fact for all these countries. Being the relative of important people might give a young person to have a good job, and mostly qualifications for right positions are ignored mostly. This situation creates a bad example for youth, and instead of developing themselves, they spend relatively more effort to get acquaintances that might help them get good jobs. Therefore, the relation between marginal productivity and wage is mostly broken. That causes a demotivation for young people.
Another important issue is the gender discrimination in labor markets. Women are discriminated in labor markets. The proof of this is the wage rate female workers receive. Also, many of the managers or the good positions are held by male workers. Labor markets provide a limited number, and quality of jobs for employees and these labor markets provides much less for women. The participation of female workers in labor markets is also limited. Being a young lady carries a high risk in labor markets because they hardly can find a good job and develop her career path. Although gender discrimination is defined as an illegal behavior in some these countries, in reality, discrimination is easy to prove.
Analyzing the unemployment in different age groups, the statistics indicate that the younger people face high unemployment rate. The older people, by using their experiences, can find relatively better jobs more efficiently. Young people's experience is questioned, and in many cases, young people cannot satisfy employers about their capability of achieving their tasks. Therefore, young people are disadvantageous in labor markets. Developing a good career path is not impossible, but it is indeed difficult for them.
An important issue for these countries is informal working. Almost half of workers in these countries work informally without any social insurance. Mostly, young and uneducated people are forced to work informally because these unqualified workers do not have good opportunities in labor markets. Thus, they work to survive informally.
Consequently, the labor markets in the MENA countries are not satisfactory for providing high-quality enough number of job opportunities. As a result of this, young people are forced into working in the industries they do not pick as low-quality workers. Also, workers are threatened by unemployment continuously because the unemployment rate is quite high. Companies use this advantage for creating pressure on workers to keep wages relatively lower. The main driving forces in the labor markets in the MENA Countries are not for developing labor force, and it looks like the low-performance of economic development in these countries does not allow them to create and implement new strategies to develop their labor force. The competition is quite high among workers, and in particular between unqualified workers. Competition is considered as positive in markets; however, competition in moderately less-developed labor markets creates relatively more pressure on workers.
Another important result of low-performance exhibiting labor markets is that workers cannot find opportunities for regenerating their financial, social, and psychological power to exist firmly in labor markets. This increases the risk of being unemployed or staying under pressure in labor markets for workers. Young people's unemployment is higher than adults, and they face a relatively harsher situation in labor markets.
The high unemployment rate is an important factor causing poverty in these countries. Poor people reproduce relatively more than rich people, and their population increases rapidly. Highly populated low-income families cannot develop conditions for the education their children and that causes a poverty trap. Especially ethnic and religious minorities suffer from this situation. For instance non-Muslim people, Roma people, and some other minorities have bad living conditions in these countries, and the harsh social discrimination against them makes the life relatively more difficult for them.
Working Poor in the MENA Countries
Lack of enough number of job opportunities in the MENA Countries causes poverty and poverty trap. Analyzing how these economies are managed might give us valuable information how labor market mechanism works. There are some countries importing oil and some other MENA Countries with poor oil reserves. The Arab MENA Countries are producing and importing oil including Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Oman and some others. These countries, instead of developing their production capacity of different products, they prefer importing many goods from the developed countries. Turkey has a different position in the MENA Countries. Turkey could have expanded its production capacity; however, the performance of the Turkish Economy is very volatile. The common point for many MENA Countries is the political conflicts reaching armed conflicts. Especially, the Arab Spring movements in these countries have brought more political mess to these countries. The Syrian case has created very adverse influence on the workers in the Middle Eastern countries. The immigration of Syrians to the neighboring countries has increased the competition in the MENA Countries' labor markets.
Therefore, there are two kinds of economies in MENA: 1)The countries importing oil, and 2)The counties with less reserve of oil. The first countries could not manage to develop their manufacturing industries. The second kind of countries has tried to transform their production into relatively more industrial production from agricultural production. The transformation efforts spent caused migration from the rural areas to the urban areas close to the industrial production. This situation caused an unsustainable social and economic life for migrants.
The oil importing countries have a relatively wealthier position; however, because they do not develop their production capacity well, there is a volatile economic condition depending on the change in oil prices. Also, there exists opportunity inequality in oil importing countries. These countries have relatively less poverty; however, these countries cannot develop their labor force because of lack of developed labor markets.
The people living in the rural areas have had a social cooperation and social protection. When these people moved to the city centers, they face new conditions, and they have difficulty in adjusting themselves to the new conditions. Considering that the labor market does not provide them good opportunities, for many families, more than one member of the family have to work. The income they generate is hardly enough for covering expenses to survive. The children of these families are away from the adults of the family because they spend most of their times working. The urban centers are not develop well socially, and social and physical infrastructure in many cities is not convenient for a large population. We observe that many cities close to industrial production areas are messy looking. Many examples can be given for such city centers in Turkey, Egypt, Libya, and other countries.
The lack of good conditions in the MENA Countries, people have to work in any job they can find, and they cannot generate enough income for sustaining their families in the urban city centers. These people are called as “Working poor” by the World Bank. The group of working poor people are mostly young people with low-level of education.
How to Develop Conditions for Young in Labor Markets
There are many aspects of labor markets to be developed for providing relatively better opportunities for young in the MENA Countries. The main areas for development as follows: 1)Education, 2)Training for young, 3)Developing equal opportunities in labor markets for young, 4)Protecting stability in labor markets for everybody, 5)Developing advisory services for young to plan their careers, and 6)Promoting entrepreneurship among young people.
Education should be the main driving force for developing labor markets. Education prepares individuals for being productive workers or entrepreneurs. The school system in the MENA countries is mostly ideologically-biased, and instead of preparing youth for being good workers, the main focus is mostly teaching youth the official ideology. Also, these countries frequently change their education system, and that confuses youth attending schools. Therefore, a stable and smoothly working education system is required to develop. Also, young people need training during their education to adapt themselves to labor markets.
The labor markets in the MENA Countries do not provide equal opportunities for everybody. Especially, young women workers are discriminated explicitly or implicitly. Therefore, the inequality in employment creates demotivation among workers. These countries need to develop inequality in reaching labor market.
Developing a stable ground in labor markets is important. The conditions in labor markets have to be developed gradually and strongly by settling some certain standards. Therefore, young workers can quickly figure out how to reach the market and present themselves in a suitable way. Also, providing some advisory services for youth might increase the adaptation of youth to labor market conditions. Also, not all young people have to be workers; some of them might like being entrepreneurs. The governments can develop some promotion strategies for increasing and easing entrepreneurship in their countries.
Conclusion
The MENA Countries have economies and labor markets with different characteristics. The main common point for all is the political conflicts these countries experience in the recent five years. The battles make the life more difficult in these countries, and the job opportunities are relatively more limited nowadays.
The job markets in the MENA Countries are not well-developed, even in the oil-importing MENA Countries. The labor markets, due to lack of well-developed structure, can provide limited opportunities for workers, and especially for youth. The low-technological industrial production in these countries is one of the main factors for the limited job opportunities.
For developing labor markets, the MENA Countries need to formulate a strategy for providing equality of opportunity for everybody, and ideological approaches should be kept away from forming this plan. The ethnical or religious discrimination or discrimination of women are important barriers for developing labor markets.
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