9.05 AM Friday, 29 March 2024
  • City Fajr Shuruq Duhr Asr Magrib Isha
  • Dubai 04:56 06:10 12:26 15:53 18:37 19:52
29 March 2024

Emirati jobless rate peaks at 14%

Joblessness among UAE citizens far higher than national average. (FILE)

Published
By Nadim Kawach

The UAE has one of the lowest unemployment rates in the Middle East but joblessness among its own citizens far exceeds the average given their preference for the public sector, official statistics have shown.

The overall unemployment rate stood at around 4.2 per cent last year, almost unchanged from the 2008 average and one of the lowest in the Arab world, showed the figures by the Ministry of Economy.

But the rate was as high as 14 per cent among nationals although they account for only about a fifth of the country’s total population, the figures showed.

Unemployment among the dominant expatriate population stood at only around 2.8 per cent in 2009, equivalent to the 2008 average, the report said.

A breakdown showed those holding secondary school level certificate had the highest joblessness rate of 6.1 per cent last year while the rate among holders of a university degree was estimated at about 4.4 per cent.

It stood at four per cent among those with preparatory school certificates, 3.8 per cent among those with primary level education, 0.8 per cent among those who just can read and write and 1.4 per cent among the illiterate.

Geographically, the rural population had a much higher unemployment rate of 7.3 per cent against 3.5 per cent among the urban population.

“The UAE’s overall unemployment rate averaged around 4.2 per cent in 2009… but the rate was as high as 14 per cent among nationals,” the ministry said. “As for the high joblessness rate among secondary school graduates, this is because this group is late in entering the labour market given their age.”

In a recent analysis of the job sector in the country, a UAE official estimated that more than 40,000 nationals in the work age are jobless, boosting the unemployment rate to its highest level since the country was established nearly 39 years ago.

Abdullah Al Awadi, a consultant at the National Human Resources Development and Recruitment Authority (Tanmia https://www.ecssr.ac.ae/CDA/Others/openExtLink/?link=https://www.tanmia.org.ae), said the surge in the local unemployment rate was a result of a continuous influx of expatriate labour and obstacles in the implementation of job nationalisation plans.

“The UAE society, like other Gulf societies, is suffering from an unemployment crisis that is moving in an upward line because of the continued surge in expatriate workers and difficulties in the implementation of the job nationalisation programmes,” he said in an article published early this year by the Abu Dhabi-based Emirates Centre for Strategic Studies and Research.

His figures showed the unemployment rate among UAE nationals peaked at 13 per cent at the end of 2008 and was as high as 14 per cent last year.

“This means that the number of UAE national job seekers has broken the 40,000-mark for the first time since the country was founded… in the past, unemployment rates ranged between three and six per cent, almost equivalent to Gulf and global levels.”

Awadi said job nationalisation is still far lagging behind targets in both the public and private sectors, with the ratio of national workforce in the public sector stabilising at around 44 per cent through 2008.

He said the level is low considering what he described a series of government laws and decisions to raise that percentage.

“This situation is mainly because of an influx of expatriates to the UAE… if the policy of recruitment in the public sector remains as it is, then it will be very difficult to achieve a balance between the national and expatriate labour in the public sector in the future,” he said.

Awadi said that despite the numerous institutions created by the UAE to tackle such a problem, the results “appear negative at the end of every year”.

“This problem has started to convince us that there is a sort of imbalance or a legal gap… it could also be a lack of co-ordination among those institutions. The problem is that such negative results emerge amid compelling government decisions for the private sector to raise the number of national workers,” he said.

The Ministry of Economy’s figures showed national employees are still concentrated in the public sector despite long-standing government efforts to encourage them to take up private sector jobs and incentives for domestic companies to recruit more citizens to tackle the festering national joblessness.

The report showed 45.8 per cent of the total national work forces is employed in federal government departments while 39.1 per cent is in local public establishments. Only around 7.4 per cent of them are in the private sector.

In contrast, expatriate employees dominate the private sector, with around 64.6 per cent of the total foreign labour concentrated in that sector.

The report showed only 2.7 per cent of the expatriate workers are employed in federal government offices and 12.2 per cent in local government departments.

Sector-wise, nationals appear to prefer jobs at public administration, defence and social security institutions, which have attracted nearly 61 per cent of them by the end of 2009. Another key sector is education, which accounted for 8.7 per cent.

Expatriates are concentrated in the wholesale and retail trade and repair sector, which has attracted nearly 17 per cent of them. Other favourite sectors for the foreign workers are domestic services, with 14.6 per cent, construction with around 13.7 per cent, communication, storage and transport with about 8.5 per cent, and real estate and business activities with 7.3 per cent.

Gender-wise, the report showed UAE women have sharply expanded their role in the domestic labour market, buoyed by recurrent statements by the country’s leaders that they should play a more active role in the economy.

From less than three per cent in early 1970s, national women’s share of local jobs in the seven emirates surged to around five per cent in 1980 and continued to rise to reach 9.6 per cent in 1985.

Their share further expanded to around 11.7 per cent in 1995 and 13.5 per cent in 2006.  It stood at 13.6 per cent in 2007 and exceeded 14 per cent in 2009.