Tunisia: Employment of Higher Education Graduates - The Sectors with the Most Hiring
21 June 2010
Read by 1472 persons
In Tunisia, discussions about employment for higher education graduates are repetitive and fail to adequately address this issue. It must be acknowledged that this is far from an easy task. When we consider that, against an estimated annual additional demand of 82,000 jobs, it is virtually impossible to satisfy the employment needs of the 60,000 new graduates entering the job market each year.
Fundamentally, economic sectors, as things stand, employ very few higher education graduates: 14% of total employment. More clearly, out of a working population of 3.1 million, 86% of employees have less than a high school diploma.
According to statistics from the National Institute of Statistics (INS), the only sector where managers make up more than half of the employees is the banking and insurance sector (57%), followed by administration-education-health (43%), real estate (25.6%), mining (25.5%), and the chemical industry (23%).
Analysis: The public sector employs far more managers and higher education graduates than the private sector.
It is noteworthy that the manufacturing sector has a small share in employing higher education graduates. 92.5% of employees in this sector do not have a high school diploma.
The question remains why this sector, which has attracted the largest net investments to date, does not hire enough managers.
According to Mr. Ndiamé Diop, the World Bank's resident representative in Tunisia, two factors explain this situation: the basic structure of this sector and the use of low-skilled labor.
Mr. Diop added: "For example, the textile sector has so far been limited to assembling parts sent by European clients for subcontracting confined to manufacturing." At this level of specialization, most of the activities assigned to the subcontractor can be performed by a workforce that does not require a higher education diploma. The activity is labor-intensive, and subcontractors in this segment of the production chain only obtain a very small share of the added value of the produced garments. In the production process up to the sale, subcontracting is the component that inherits the lowest overall margin achieved throughout the transformation process."
The solution, therefore, lies in moving up the value chain and no longer relying on basic sectors using low-skilled labor, and above all, labor incapable of absorbing all the new job demands from higher education graduates...
At the macroeconomic level, the solution can only be structural. It involves shifting, as quickly as possible, towards innovation-driven growth and, consequently, towards a higher value-added and knowledge-intensive economy.
Tunisian site promotion structures are already promoting Tunisia's technological offerings to foreign investors. The recent 12th edition of the Carthage Forum worked towards this goal with a thousand participants.
The stakes are high. Sociologists, as well as economists, are well aware of this. The socioeconomic implications of a high unemployment rate among higher education graduates can compromise long-term growth and development. They can hinder investment in education and induce a sense of wasted public resources.
Published June 21, 2010 07:20:00
Posted online June 21, 2010
webmanager
Fundamentally, economic sectors, as things stand, employ very few higher education graduates: 14% of total employment. More clearly, out of a working population of 3.1 million, 86% of employees have less than a high school diploma.
According to statistics from the National Institute of Statistics (INS), the only sector where managers make up more than half of the employees is the banking and insurance sector (57%), followed by administration-education-health (43%), real estate (25.6%), mining (25.5%), and the chemical industry (23%).
Analysis: The public sector employs far more managers and higher education graduates than the private sector.
It is noteworthy that the manufacturing sector has a small share in employing higher education graduates. 92.5% of employees in this sector do not have a high school diploma.
The question remains why this sector, which has attracted the largest net investments to date, does not hire enough managers.
According to Mr. Ndiamé Diop, the World Bank's resident representative in Tunisia, two factors explain this situation: the basic structure of this sector and the use of low-skilled labor.
Mr. Diop added: "For example, the textile sector has so far been limited to assembling parts sent by European clients for subcontracting confined to manufacturing." At this level of specialization, most of the activities assigned to the subcontractor can be performed by a workforce that does not require a higher education diploma. The activity is labor-intensive, and subcontractors in this segment of the production chain only obtain a very small share of the added value of the produced garments. In the production process up to the sale, subcontracting is the component that inherits the lowest overall margin achieved throughout the transformation process."
The solution, therefore, lies in moving up the value chain and no longer relying on basic sectors using low-skilled labor, and above all, labor incapable of absorbing all the new job demands from higher education graduates...
At the macroeconomic level, the solution can only be structural. It involves shifting, as quickly as possible, towards innovation-driven growth and, consequently, towards a higher value-added and knowledge-intensive economy.
Tunisian site promotion structures are already promoting Tunisia's technological offerings to foreign investors. The recent 12th edition of the Carthage Forum worked towards this goal with a thousand participants.
The stakes are high. Sociologists, as well as economists, are well aware of this. The socioeconomic implications of a high unemployment rate among higher education graduates can compromise long-term growth and development. They can hinder investment in education and induce a sense of wasted public resources.
Published June 21, 2010 07:20:00
Posted online June 21, 2010
webmanager
