Jobs For Kuwaitis Ahead Of Elections

It is reported that the first batch of retrenched employees received termination notices following the announcement last month by the Minister of State for Municipal Affairs, Rana Al-Faris, to phase out the replacement of all expatriate employees in the Municipality starting on 1 September.

Kuwaitization is expected to take place over three phases and be completed by July 2023. Each phase will result in ending a third of the contracts with expatriates, with the second and third phases to be implemented in February and July of 2023 respectively.
Children of Kuwaiti women married to non-Kuwaitis, citizens of the Gulf states, bedoun, drivers, and 50 percent of workers in burial services are excluded from the retrenchment plan. The ministerial decision also prohibits the reappointment or transfer of foreign workers between municipality departments.

Despite the government's plans to train and prepare national workers, some of the municipality's jobs require skills that are not often available in the national workforce.

Furthermore, it might deter white-collar immigrants, resulting in the transfer of foreign workers to other countries in the region, resulting in labor shortages and disruptions in project delivery.

In order to appease voters, and to allay criticisms concerning Kuwait's skewed demographics, analysts believe the government is eager to speed up Kuwaitization ahead of parliamentary elections scheduled for the end of the month.

Consequently, the demographic structure of the country will be transformed from its current 70:30 ratio between expats and nationals to around 50:50 by 2025 and 30:70 in favor of nationals by 2030.

According to the government, it is pursuing a policy of replacement rather than creating new jobs to absorb nationals into the public sector. This is apparently being done to prevent new workers further engorging the public sector and straining the wage bill in the budget.

Several ministries have announced job opportunities for nationals in construction projects. Last week, the Ministry of Electricity, Water and Renewable Energy (MEW) announced the provision of job opportunities for Kuwaitis and the children of Kuwaiti women married to non-Kuwaiti men in the context of encouraging national cadres to work in the private sector.

Those wishing to obtain an opportunity to apply for these opportunities should visit the ministry's website to apply. These opportunities will be made available in the private sector, specifically companies that have signed contracts with the ministry.
According to reports, Kuwaiti women and children of Kuwaiti women can be employed under four contracts associated with the MEW as a first stage. “More than 200 employees can be employed on these contracts according to the percentage specified for each contract,” noted a statement by the ministry.

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