Description

Over the next two decades, the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region faces an unprecedented challenge. In 2000, the labor forces of the region totaled some 104 million workers, a figure expected to reach 185 million by 2020. With unemployment now about 15 percent, the goal of absorbing unemployed workers in addition to the new entrants implies the need to create close to 100 million jobs by 2020, a doubling of the current level of employment in the first two decades of the 21st century. Unlocking the Employment Potential in the Middle East and North Africa: Toward a New Social Contract provides a comprehensive account of contemporary labor markets in MENA. The book integrates questions about how to build vibrant labor markets and restore the region’s growth performance into a framework that also addresses issues of population dynamics, socioeconomic trends, employment regulations, the quality of governance, opportunities in the world economy, and the impact of a redistributive social contract on prospects for reform. The book concludes that in no small measure, MENA’s economic future will be determined by the fate of its labor markets.