Offshore work flourishing at the expense of job security

In an interesting article today, Al Hayat newspaper highlighted the flourishing offshore work sector that is attracting a greater number of young people. Youth tend to give up on the more traditional job security in the interest of a better quality of life and a substantial margin of freedom, Al Hayat wrote. Prospects for offshore work, work at home and steady freelancing are gushing, particularly in creative industries, such as writing, translation and interpretation, editing, graphics, website design, programming, marketing and data entry, in addition to the civil society and community work sectors. Al Hayat mentioned that this type of work allows employers and business owners to expect high quality services from experts without commitment to long term contracts, work insurance, office supplies expenses and related running costs. A director of one of the local NGOs for refugees and marginalized communities explained to Al Hayat that he prefers to use the services of a remote interpreter and an ad or poster designer for better output rather than delving into the process of recruitment of a full time employee who might laze around when his/her assignment is done. A human resources employee, Hazim, pointed out to the newspaper that the working world is heading more and more towards freelancing and online opportunities with the growing number of specialized e-portals that promote this kind of work. The idea which originated in the West, Hazim explained, has found its way into Arab countries year after year, albeit for limited types of jobs. (Al Hayat, March 13, 2017)