By Sami Zaptia.
London, 9 August 2020:
Most of Libya’s registered jobseekers hold a first university degree, Libya’s Tripoli-based Labour Ministry revealed yesterday.
Statistics and graphs released by the Ministry showed that of the total 128,679 officially registered jobseekers for the first 6 months of 2020, a total of 50, 643 were university graduates. Of these, 33,623 were females while males were 17,200.
There were 38,805 jobseekers who had finished school, 28,645 held middle diplomas, 10,356 had no qualifications, while 230 held postgraduate degrees.
It must be kept in mind that these statistics reflect Libya’s unemployed who have bothered to officially register with the Ministry.
Last month, the Ministry launched a new interactive website to ease job searches.
It will be recalled that in March this year the Labour Ministry announced there were 118,000 Libyans officially registered as jobseekers in 2019. These were the numbers registered in its database covering the whole of Libya, the Ministry had said.
The regional breakdown for the figures were:
- 13,508 in the south
- 7,330 in the east
- 65,196 in the west
- 31,984 in the central region
High rate of state-sector employees
In July, the Labour Ministry had announced that there are 2.3 million (2,303.897) state-sector employees. The statistics were the result of its half-yearly survey.
The ministry said in the statement that the number of employees in the administrative sector reached 1, 704, 744 employees, the number of employees outside the administrative apparatus reached 599.153) employees.
The number of employees in the 18-25 age group numbered 98,490 of which 57,725 were male and 40,765 were females. The number of employees between the ages of 26 and 45 were 1,266,564 of which 78,1752 were males and 48,4812 females. According to statistics, the number of male employees throughout the general administrative sector was 1,176,167, while the number of females were 1,127,730.
Unemployment
It will be recalled that Libya suffers from high unemployment especially in the youth sector – which is considered one of the highest in the Maghreb region.
According to the World Bank, Libya’s labour market is skewed toward the public sector, which employs more than 80 percent of the formal workforce, while the private sector employs just 4 percent of Libyans.
Unemployment was reported at around 15 percent in 2013 down from a high of 20 percent in 2010. However, unofficial estimates suggest that the actual figure is closer to 30 percent with the rates for youth estimated at 50 percent. Most of these unemployed reportedly hold university degrees.
In several reports over the years, the World Bank has put this to the skills mismatches in Libya’s labour market needed to generate a vibrant private sector. This includes the lack of access to financing, uncertainty in the legal environment and a fragile security situation – preventing private sector growth.
Militia DDR needs vibrant economy
More pertinently for Libya, the need and hope for Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration (DDR) of its militias is very much linked with the Libyan state and economy being able to create enough work opportunities for its waring militias – to pry militiamen away from their weapons.
118,000 Libyans officially looking for work: Ministry of Labour
