Unemployment can be measured in ways other than by numbers and percentages. There are indicators which clearly point to this particular social problem. One indicator — which saddened me considerably — was a recent article in one of our newspapers.
This was what I read: “The dreams of more than 1,000 young men evaporated as they stood in line outside the Fire Department Training Institute in Madinah. In response to news that the institute had job openings, many of the young men had stood patiently in line since dawn. It later became necessary for the deputy manager of the Madinah Fire Department to make an announcement. He informed those waiting that there were no jobs and that if there were, there would be an official announcement by the fire department. He also cautioned them against listening to rumors.”
This news has many meanings other than a simple increase in unemployment. Perhaps the saddest is that training opportunities for young men who want to be trained are unavailable. This shows that there is a big gap between training and the job market. There are many graduates from a variety of training institutes who are unable to find jobs.
It seems that there is little or no coordination between the general administration of technical education and training on one side and the needs and requirements of factories and companies on the other. I have read that Saudi Aramco is working with the authorities to develop a special program in which young people are given even more training in order to compensate for the gap between graduate training and the job market. I wonder if the general administration of technical education and training is doing the same thing. I doubt that they are since the unemployment rate is rising despite improvements in the economy.
