KUWAIT CITY, 27 January 2004 — Kuwaiti lawmakers warned yesterday of a mounting unemployment problem and criticized the government for not creating enough jobs for citizens in the country where more than 1.1 million foreigners work.
“Unemployment can easily become a snowball that gets bigger day after day. ... Only a political decision at the top can find a solution,” MP Hassan Jowhar warned during during yesterday’s parliamentary session.
“It’s a time bomb that will explode in this society. More than 55,000 felonies were committed (last year), more than 20 percent of them by unemployed nationals,” said MP Ali Al-Deqbasi.
Planning Ministry officials told MPs the unemployment rate stands at eight percent among a population of 900,000 citizens in a country which produces two million barrels of crude oil daily and makes some $20 billion in annual income.
Kuwaitis rely heavily on the government for jobs, with 94.3 percent of the indigenous workforce of 281,000 in public sector jobs and a meager 16,000 employed in the private sector, the officials said.
At the same time, the emirate’s private sector employs about 700,000 foreigners, with 400,000 more employed as domestic helps and drivers. About 60,000 other foreigners are in government jobs.
“Our problem here is that we have some jobs on offer, but seekers registered with the ministry do not qualify for the jobs,” said Planning Minister Sheikh Ahmad Abdullah Al-Sabah.
He said 21,200 national job seekers are now registered with the ministry, up from 3,230 in 1997 and that the number is expected to grow to 52,000 at the start of 2006.
A large number of citizens who declare themselves unemployed are not skilled or trained for technical jobs and many are women seeking benefits, the minister said.
With the number of Kuwaiti graduates increasing rapidly and the availability of government jobs on the wane, the government has been forced to look to the private sector for jobs for nationals.
In October, a law forcing private sector institutions to employ nationals was implemented with the aim of employing 3,000 Kuwaitis every year. Implementation has met strong resistance from the private sector, which risks penalties for failing to employ the minimum number of nationals.
“But the problem is that private sector companies do not want to employ nationals,” who demand high salaries and more incentives than foreigners, said Waleed Al-Wuhaib, secretary of the manpower council.
Kuwaitis form just 2.2 percent of the workforce in the private sector and “we want to increase this percentage to three percent after one year,” Wuhaib said.
Kuwait imposes no income tax or taxes on local companies, while still providing a cradle-to-grave welfare system for its citizens.
