A shortage of good jobs and the need to know someone senior in a company (wastaare the main factors young Arabs most frequently mention as obstacles to getting a job in the region, according to a new survey.
The first Silatech-Gallup poll conducted among young Arabs across Middle East and North Africa found that 58 percent of respondents said they would be willing to relocate to find a suitable job.
When asked whether knowing people in high positions is critical to getting a job, the majority of the respondents in all countries answered yes, The Peninsula reported today.
A lack of proper training, or lack of good jobs was another challenge mentioned by a sizeable number of youth in most regions, the paper added in its report on The Silatech Index: Voices of Young Arabs which is due to be unveiled later on Sunday.
Respondents’ satisfaction with efforts to increase the number of quality jobs was lowest in Iraq (10 percent), while it was highest in the UAE (69 percent), followed by Qatar (65 percent) and Kuwait (63 percent).
A relatively high proportion of young Arabs who are not currently business owners plan to start a business next year, the survey also showed.
The survey findings were based on face-to-face interviews with young people, aged 15-29, in Algeria, Bahrain, Comoros, Djibouti, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Mauritania, Morocco, the Palestinian Territories, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, the UAE, and Yemen.
