Unemployment in UAE

United Arab Emirates is one of GCC members which suffer unemployment increase since the early country development time of the 70th of the past century. According to the (C. I. A The World Factbook, n. d. ) the unemployment rate for the United Arab Emirates is 2. 1%; with roughly 32. 6% of Emirati men and 47. 7% of women out of work. This is based on a study conducted in 2006 from a poll of 4,800 U. A. E nationals of working age. To break it down even further, 73. 8% among those aged between 18-29 were unemployed. 18. 6% of individuals aged between 30-39 were unemployed. 30. % of individuals with a University degree were unemployed. Those of who are educated at the secondary school level constituted a 35. 8% unemployment.

This paper addresses and discusses the topic through several resources emerging the situation of unemployment in UAE based on statistics gathered since 2001 till 2010. Furthermore this paper spots and focuses on the associated reasons which are considered as root cause and the effective solution. (Muawia E. Ibrahim, 2004) wrote about the fluctuation of the unemployment among UAE nationals despite of the attractive offers in both public and private sector.

Till 2002, 29900 nationals were registered as unemployed in addition to 12600 in 2003. In 2001& 2002, 7124 national was graduated from university; this increment in the number of university graduates influenced the phenomena of the unemployment in UAE to score 35% of the total number 29900. According to the planning ministry statistics only 9% of the total workforce was occupied by UAE nationals in 2003 and this situation referred to the incompatibility of academic training and market requirements. The increase of the theoretical than practical academic isciplines graduates is one reason behind this phenomenon; however the market demands the technological and professional field. The gap between the academic institution and the employment institution caused students to wrongly select their studying major which is not required by the market. Because of the deterioration in the standards of students in mathematics, English and Arabic, also lacking basic study skills, research ideas and personal abilities made the university and the higher colleges of technology to spend money on training newly admitted student in order for them to become educated with new academic life requirements.

Accordingly, recommendation raised to the concerned institutions to cooperate in prescribing syllabus so that students are well prepared and capable of carrying on with their studies in higher education institution. Also, recommended strong and closer coordination between higher education institutions to design academic programmes that are aligned with the labour market demand. Ultimately the concept of the training students during college period is important to improve the employment relationships. Elsa Baxter, 2009) clearly emphasis on unemployment among UAE nationals at its highest level since the country was founded 38 years ago, with more than 40,000 Emiratis out of work. According to the National human Resources Development and Recruitment (Tanmia) the UAE was suffering unemployment crisis, which will continue to rise unless action is taken. While the local unemployment rate on an influx of expatriate labour and the failure of plans to create more jobs for locals.

The UAE society like other Gulf societies is suffering from an article published by the Abu Dhabi based Emirates centre for Strategic Studies and research. Further, the unemployment rate among UAE nationals peaked at 13 percent at the end of 2008. The same rate for expatriates was just 2. 6 percent. Despite of the numerous efforts by the UAE government to tackle the unemployment problem they had little effect. Overall, this problem started to convince us that there is a sort of imbalanced or legal gap, it could also be a lack of coordination among those institutions. UAE unemployment rises to 4%, 2009) unemployment in the UAE jumped to 4 percent in 2008, from 3. 45 percent in 2007, according to figure from the Ministry of Economy. Considering the fact of expatriates have left the country since the global financial crises. Which means the jobless rate among expatriates will not increase sharply. The rate among UAE nationals records a higher increase given the rapid growth in their number. However, this is not basically for economic reasons but due to the reluctance of nationals to join the private sector and their preference for the public sector.

Anees Dayoub & Ben Flanagan, 2006), The high rate of unemployment among UAE nationals was revealed today in a study that found that 32. 6% of Emirati men, and 47. 7% of women, are not in work. Nepotism and the preference for imported labour were seen as being the two main factors behind this. The study by Sharjah University polled a random selection of 4,800 UAE nationals of working age. The unemployment rate among those aged 18-29 was 73. 8%, the newspaper said. In the 30-39 bracket 18. % of those polled were unemployed. Those with a university degree – representing 30. 1% of the total unemployed – are actually less likely to be in work than those with a diploma (21. 1% of the total). Those only educated to secondary school level constitute 35. 8% of people not in work. The predominate reason behind the high figures was nepotism – where jobs are awarded to family members of management – with 74. 3 per cent citing this as a cause.

Competition from expatriates was a factor for 30. 9% of those surveyed. Nadim Kawach, 2004), All Arab League countries are suffering from such a problem but joblessness has remained under control in some members, including the UAE, on the grounds their development spending is still high and their economy has been growing fast enough in some years. While unemployment in some member states is as high as 20 per cent, it has remained as low as 1. 8 per cent over the past seven years in the UAE and Kuwait. Unemployment among UAE nationals is higher, standing at around six per cent, given the relatively low numbers of local manpower, according to official figures.

But the reasons for unemployment among nationals in the UAE have nothing to do with economic performance but with completely different factors. They include a sharp increase in native graduates, their preference for working in the public sector and the reluctance of the private sector to recruit nationals on the grounds they are costlier. Figures revealed by Matar Humaid Al Tayer, Minister of Labour and Social Affairs, showed around 13,000 known nationals are looking for jobs, accounting for nearly six per cent of the total native workforce of around 200,000 at the end of last year. More than 3,000 nationals are graduating from universities and institutes in the UAE every year and the rate is expected to continue until 2015…this requires serious measures to accommodate all those graduates in the labour market,” the Minister told the monthly bulletin of the Abu Dhabi Chamber of Commerce and Industry. UAE has a wealth of oil and is distinct from the rest of the Gulf population density low is supposed to not face many of the problems faced by countries with densely populated, but it turned out, through reports from parties interested in internal and external different that the UAE suffer from the problem of unemployment .

The problem has emerged since the early years of statehood movement development. Results of some of these reports prove the existence of the problem of unemployment in the UAE, which is high from the perspective of reality where the UAE Emiratis ratio of two percent of the total workforce, including the state and the rate of thirty-five percent of the UAE based unemployed are university graduates.

Reports in this regard indicate that the unemployment rate continues to increase since the year two thousand and six months, until today, although observers show concern about this problem and its future if it remained the case as it is without any progress to solve the problem of unemployment. The truth is that reports attributed the occurrence of the problem of unemployment to many reasons, and of the most prominent and most powerful and realistic is the absence of the comprehensive educational plan and also the absence of co-ordination between state institutions concerned.

One of the reasons that have contributed to exacerbate this problem economic boom between the year two thousand and three to the year two thousand and seven, this rapid change and non-measured by the state institutions to create a large gap between the requirements of the labor market and the qualifications of citizens of study process are available, and then came the setback of the global economic to receive its consequences on the State and increase the complexity of the problem. Incurred higher education institutions and universities to pay huge ums in order to bridge this gap for the rehabilitation of citizens and provide them with the skills and science that correspond with the requirements of the labor market, as a temporary solution. On the other hand it is also the reasons is the lack of awareness and poor performance of the individual citizen and not to highlight the seriousness with full opportunity for the development of educational qualifications and scientific capabilities to be able to bear the burden of the labor market.

There are also other reasons contribute to the survival problem of unemployment in the State, such as nepotism and cronyism, which leads to giving opportunities and positions of responsibility that need to be hard work experience to people who are incompetent and unable to bear the burden required and thus the failure and a waste of time and money at the expense of other citizens. One of the reasons also bring foreign workers without statistical studies and conscious to preserve the rights of citizens in the percentage of jobs available in the state.

Through the above discussion of the problem and the reasons for their formation can be ascertained that the fundamental solution is to work on studies and statistics include all the emirates and the development of a future plan, taking into account the current situation and how to deal with him, and directing all state institutions, public and private cooperation and coordination to develop appropriate solutions.

Distribution of roles between the emirates to make progress on the economic level in terms of geographic scope and manner of economic activity and also to reduce to bring foreign workers would help alleviate the problem relatively. It is also clear to the country’s lack of national cadres and high-value intellectual and global experience a significant impact on the incidence and the continuing problem of unemployment and others.