Nationals Opt For Government Jobs Due To Stability

Besides the millions of lives lost due to COVID-19 infections, the global pandemic had a wide ranging impact on the economic and social life of people around the world. In Kuwait repercussions from the pandemic led to an economic downturn that resulted in significant loss of income for businesses, which forced many to close down permanently or slow down their activities.

Many companies in the private sector resorted to laying off workers or cutting their salaries, in an attempt to stay afloat. The only workers who did not face any job terminations or suffer salary cuts were the public sector employees, who continued to receive their salaries in full during the entire period that government offices were shut down by the pandemic.

The stability of jobs in the public sector has had the unintended consequence of reversing the trend witnessed recently, of at least some young citizens opting for jobs in the private sector. However, the pandemic has convinced many in the national youth force that the public sector, which assured job stability and salary security, was a far better employment option than the private sector.

Latest numbers from the Central Administration of Statistics (CAS), reiterate this change in preference among national youths. Figures show that the year 2020 recorded a small decrease in the number of national workers in the private sector, which went from 73,837 employees in 2019 to 73,303 nationals in 2020.

On the other hand, there was a significant increase in the number of nationals joining the public sector, with the total number of citizens in this sector going from 314,916 in 2019 to 323,358 in 2020, which was an increase of 8,442 jobs in the government sector.

This reversal in employment preferences by youth has impacted plans by the authorities to encourage more nationals to join the private sector. The government has in recent years been struggling with a bloated public sector that is no longer capable of employing the thousands of young citizens who enter the labor pool each year, and has been actively promoting more nationals to take up employment in the private sector.

In its report on employment trends in the country, CAS said “The increasing growth of the Kuwaiti economy has led to the emergence of many different job opportunities, which has resulted in an increase in demand for national and expatriate workforce.”

However, statistics from CAS show a decrease in the number of workers in both the public and private sectors. Figures show a loss of 30,288 jobs in both sectors, with the total number of workers dropping from 1,655,123 employees in 2019 to a total of 1,624,835 employees in 2020.

Despite this setback, the Public Authority of Manpower (PAM) is reported to be still pushing ahead with its plans to increase the percentage of national workforce in the private sector. The authority said it expects the private sector to abide by the terms and conditions of the plan, and not to fall foul with the law to employ more nationals among its workforce which is expected to come into force by the first quarter of 2022.

 

 

SOURCE  TIMESKUWAIT

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