World Bank Alliance in the Fight Against Unemployment
13 September 2010
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To better fight unemployment, the Tunisian government has, for the first time, requested external support, namely that of the European Union (EU) and the World Bank (WB).
A recent report from the international institution reveals this. This request for external aid shows the determination of the public authorities to do everything possible to overcome a problem that affects a part of the population. It also shows the awareness, among these same public authorities, that the challenge of unemployment is so important that it cannot be met by the country's own means.
"The main challenges for Tunisia's future are to guarantee the generation of quality jobs, to provide an adequately skilled workforce, and an efficient match between jobs and workers," analyzes the same source.
However, and foreign partners are always surprised by this, "despite its excellent macroeconomic results, the pace of job creation has not been in line with the growth of the workforce and has been aggravated by the recent economic crisis" and "unemployment remains a persistent problem".
Indeed, Tunisia has a "relatively high unemployment rate of 14.7% (compared to 6.4% for all middle-income countries)" which "hides a striking disparity by age, with younger groups in the workforce being more affected".
Over-supply of graduates and shortage of technicians
Furthermore, the unemployment rate for university graduates has literally exploded in fifteen years, rising from 5% in 1994 to 23% in 2009. And this rate could increase because the number of university graduates will continue to increase, rising from 69,000 in 2006-2007 to 79,900 during the 2010-2011 academic year.
This analysis is shared by the WB, which announces that unemployment will "likely" worsen, "especially for university graduates, due to a still growing job supply, insufficient demand, and a poorly functioning labor market", thus leading on average to long periods of unemployment. A situation attributable, according to the WB report, firstly to the education system "which does not meet the needs of the job market", since it generates "an oversupply of graduates and shortages of technicians". And even if they are lucky enough to avoid unemployment, university graduates "find themselves overqualified or in jobs that do not match their qualifications".
Informal jobs and fixed-term contracts
Secondly, a second factor generating or aggravating unemployment is the rigidity of labor legislation and related procedures, since Tunisia - where "informal employment and fixed-term contracts are increasingly more widespread than those of indefinite duration" - is distinguished by the highest score in the region for the index of difficulty in dismissing employees.
Similarly, the deficit in job creation is also attributable, according to the WB, to what its report calls "centralized wage setting" which is "monopolistically negotiated by unions whose members are all employed". While the unemployed - who "could benefit from a wage decrease in exchange for an increase in jobs created" - "have no say in the matter".
Published on September 6, 2010
Posted online on September 13, 2010
Kapitalis.com
A recent report from the international institution reveals this. This request for external aid shows the determination of the public authorities to do everything possible to overcome a problem that affects a part of the population. It also shows the awareness, among these same public authorities, that the challenge of unemployment is so important that it cannot be met by the country's own means.
"The main challenges for Tunisia's future are to guarantee the generation of quality jobs, to provide an adequately skilled workforce, and an efficient match between jobs and workers," analyzes the same source.
However, and foreign partners are always surprised by this, "despite its excellent macroeconomic results, the pace of job creation has not been in line with the growth of the workforce and has been aggravated by the recent economic crisis" and "unemployment remains a persistent problem".
Indeed, Tunisia has a "relatively high unemployment rate of 14.7% (compared to 6.4% for all middle-income countries)" which "hides a striking disparity by age, with younger groups in the workforce being more affected".
Over-supply of graduates and shortage of technicians
Furthermore, the unemployment rate for university graduates has literally exploded in fifteen years, rising from 5% in 1994 to 23% in 2009. And this rate could increase because the number of university graduates will continue to increase, rising from 69,000 in 2006-2007 to 79,900 during the 2010-2011 academic year.
This analysis is shared by the WB, which announces that unemployment will "likely" worsen, "especially for university graduates, due to a still growing job supply, insufficient demand, and a poorly functioning labor market", thus leading on average to long periods of unemployment. A situation attributable, according to the WB report, firstly to the education system "which does not meet the needs of the job market", since it generates "an oversupply of graduates and shortages of technicians". And even if they are lucky enough to avoid unemployment, university graduates "find themselves overqualified or in jobs that do not match their qualifications".
Informal jobs and fixed-term contracts
Secondly, a second factor generating or aggravating unemployment is the rigidity of labor legislation and related procedures, since Tunisia - where "informal employment and fixed-term contracts are increasingly more widespread than those of indefinite duration" - is distinguished by the highest score in the region for the index of difficulty in dismissing employees.
Similarly, the deficit in job creation is also attributable, according to the WB, to what its report calls "centralized wage setting" which is "monopolistically negotiated by unions whose members are all employed". While the unemployed - who "could benefit from a wage decrease in exchange for an increase in jobs created" - "have no say in the matter".
Published on September 6, 2010
Posted online on September 13, 2010
Kapitalis.com
