Some Shocking Data from the Middle East

Middle East is rather known for its battles, civil uprisings, and immense amount of oil which supports the region. An interesting study on the Middle East countries done by ICAEW with focus on the UAE, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar, Kuwait, Egypt, Iran, Iraq and Lebanon revealed a lot of information on growth and employment of this region.

The Middle East economy is expected to be stronger by 3.9% in this year than the world economy. The whole GCC‘s GDP growth is assessed to be 4.8%. The growth rate of GCC was higher by 6% in 2012 than the current rate in 2013. This is much above the growth rate of western countries.

The tremendous growth in population is outpacing the European countries. The maximum number of youth under 30 is in the Middle East region and from 1990-2010 the population grew by 52 % when the population growth rate of the world was only 30%! One amazing fact is that the population growth rate in the EU countries in the same period was only 2.5%!!!!!! With 60% of youth population less than 30, Middle East has the highest number of youths in the world.

Finding proper employment for this youth population will be the major issue which Middle Eastern countries are going to face. More than GCC countries, Non-GCC countries will be affected more by unemployment. Among Non-GCC countries, Iraq and Egypt will have more population in which Iraq’s population has grown by 75% than 2010. The population of Kuwait which is a GCC country has grown by 47% whereas the growth rate in Non-GCC countries including Iran and Lebanon is much lower.

The Middle East is preparing their way for their youth; this is visible from the recent Nitaqat issues from Saudi Arabia and problems in Kuwait. The youth population burst in this region will definitely lead to severe unemployment issues. The present unemployment rate in the Middle East and North Africa is the highest in the world which is 28.1%, i.e., three out of ten people were unemployed in 2012 The youth under the age of 24 is four times more likely to be unemployed than the adults. In 2008, 94.3% of Qatar’s labor forces were foreigners and 66.9% of GCC’s workforce also was immigrants!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!