Unemployment data in Lebanon not accurate and job crisis results from failing economic policies

Existing data on the Lebanese labor market is meagre, with an estimated workforce of 1207000 persons in 2009, at an annual 6.6% rate of increase, according to researcher Najib Issa. During a seminar on ‘employment and the labor market crisis in Lebanon’, organized by the Lebanese Observatory for the Rights of Workers and Employees, in cooperation with the Arab NGO Network for Development (ANND), Issa indicated that the informal labor market makes up around 56% of the overall actual workforce, with 39% of laborers having informal jobs. On unemployment rates, Issa, citing official 2010 statistics, said they stood at around 11%, but, he added, these figures were partly politicized and erroneously standardized rendering them inaccurate. As per international estimates, which obviously lack the precise field assessment value, the rates of unemployment fluctuated between 20-25%. However, the rate of annual new arrivals into the local labor market has been stable, (40 to 45 thousand persons), Issa maintained. Joblessness, he explained, chiefly affects the young generation and highly educated and qualified cadres, noting that the unemployment period extends from 1 to 2 years in average, which is quite lengthy. Analyzing the causes of the labor crisis in the country, Issa said it was mostly structural and linked to inadequate economic policies which constantly failed to create jobs. He advised boosting economy, particularly the knowledge-based economy and supporting highly productive and job generating small and medium enterprises. (Al Diyar, December 17, 2016)