Tunisian Employment: The World Bank's Diagnosis
4 June 2009
Read by 1657 persons
Employment, a top priority for Tunisian authorities, is currently the subject of widespread debate.
The World Bank has weighed in, offering its own assessment of the situation and outlining strategies to reduce unemployment in its report on its partnership with Tunisia for the period 2010-2014.
Overall, the Bank believes that "the economic growth model in Tunisia has not, to date, generated enough jobs for a better-educated population." As a result, unemployment has been consistently high in Tunisia, reaching 14.1% in 2008. The most affected groups are young people and educated individuals.
Unemployment Scanned The World Bank attributes the situation to four factors. Firstly, Tunisia has a large number of university graduates. 57% of new entrants to the labor market hold a university degree. The Bank considers these unemployed graduates as increasing the supply of skilled labor.
Secondly, the Bank notes that existing economic sectors (textiles-clothing, agriculture, agro-industry, automotive components, tourism, etc.) have remained largely low-skilled labor-intensive and do not generate sufficient demand for post-baccalaureate workers.
Thirdly, the ability of innovative sectors to create knowledge-intensive jobs is insufficient, despite advanced integration into the market economy and the attraction of significant foreign direct investment.
Fourthly, the Bank estimates that women's participation in the labor market remains low despite the high levels of education among women (who constitute the majority of university graduates).
The Solution: A Knowledge Economy To address this situation, the World Bank proposes a transformation of the Tunisian economy into a knowledge-intensive economy.
The goal is to shift labor demand towards the most educated.
To achieve this, the Bank recommends action on two fronts: the labor market and the availability of sufficient and quality skills.
Regarding the labor market, the World Bank believes it is relatively rigid. This rigidity is evident in the distribution of jobs between formal and informal work, which negatively affects productivity and the tendency of Tunisian companies to create informal jobs. This same rigidity is linked to the social protection of workers. The Bank believes that this protection, currently provided by companies, should be ensured by neutral general schemes.
It suggests that the Tunisian government simplify the rules and procedures governing recruitment and dismissal, reduce spending, and restructure companies.
The second prerequisite is to provide companies with the skills they need. This is far from being the case today. A survey of companies conducted by the Institute of Quantitative Studies (IEQ) revealed that 60% of the companies surveyed could not find the profiles of engineers, technicians, and skilled workers they were looking for.
The solution proposed by the World Bank involves reorienting higher education towards technical and scientific sectors, as well as focusing on skills training, including retraining workers in traditional sectors and adapting higher education training to the needs of a knowledge-based economy.
Published April 23, 2010
Posted online April 26, 2010
Tustex
The World Bank has weighed in, offering its own assessment of the situation and outlining strategies to reduce unemployment in its report on its partnership with Tunisia for the period 2010-2014.
Overall, the Bank believes that "the economic growth model in Tunisia has not, to date, generated enough jobs for a better-educated population." As a result, unemployment has been consistently high in Tunisia, reaching 14.1% in 2008. The most affected groups are young people and educated individuals.
Unemployment Scanned The World Bank attributes the situation to four factors. Firstly, Tunisia has a large number of university graduates. 57% of new entrants to the labor market hold a university degree. The Bank considers these unemployed graduates as increasing the supply of skilled labor.
Secondly, the Bank notes that existing economic sectors (textiles-clothing, agriculture, agro-industry, automotive components, tourism, etc.) have remained largely low-skilled labor-intensive and do not generate sufficient demand for post-baccalaureate workers.
Thirdly, the ability of innovative sectors to create knowledge-intensive jobs is insufficient, despite advanced integration into the market economy and the attraction of significant foreign direct investment.
Fourthly, the Bank estimates that women's participation in the labor market remains low despite the high levels of education among women (who constitute the majority of university graduates).
The Solution: A Knowledge Economy To address this situation, the World Bank proposes a transformation of the Tunisian economy into a knowledge-intensive economy.
The goal is to shift labor demand towards the most educated.
To achieve this, the Bank recommends action on two fronts: the labor market and the availability of sufficient and quality skills.
Regarding the labor market, the World Bank believes it is relatively rigid. This rigidity is evident in the distribution of jobs between formal and informal work, which negatively affects productivity and the tendency of Tunisian companies to create informal jobs. This same rigidity is linked to the social protection of workers. The Bank believes that this protection, currently provided by companies, should be ensured by neutral general schemes.
It suggests that the Tunisian government simplify the rules and procedures governing recruitment and dismissal, reduce spending, and restructure companies.
The second prerequisite is to provide companies with the skills they need. This is far from being the case today. A survey of companies conducted by the Institute of Quantitative Studies (IEQ) revealed that 60% of the companies surveyed could not find the profiles of engineers, technicians, and skilled workers they were looking for.
The solution proposed by the World Bank involves reorienting higher education towards technical and scientific sectors, as well as focusing on skills training, including retraining workers in traditional sectors and adapting higher education training to the needs of a knowledge-based economy.
Published April 23, 2010
Posted online April 26, 2010
Tustex
