Kuwaitis 22.2% of labor market.

The rate of Kuwaitis in the labor market has reached 22.2 percent, according to the latest official figures, reports Al-Rai daily. The statistics of the Central Statistical Bureau on the labor market status as of September 30, 2022 revealed that the rate of increase of Kuwaitis in the labor market is less than 4.5 percent annually in the last five years, since the implementation of the Kuwaitization plan in 2017, which succeeded in achieving the bulk of its goals represented by the Kuwaitization of jobs in government agencies, according to specific percentages.

The number of Kuwaitis working in both the public and private sectors has reached 483,803, with 184,953 men and 253,850 women, compared to 1,538,216 non-Kuwaitis of which 1,358,631 are men and 179,585 are women. The figures, which do not include the family sector (domestic workers and the like), reveal that citizens currently constitute 22.2 percent of the total labor market (which amounts to 1,977,019), compared to 77.8 percent of non-Kuwaitis. Compared to the figures of previous years, it is clear that the rate of increase of citizens in the labor market did not exceed 4.5 percent in 5 years. This affirms the difficulty of adjusting the demographics according to the plans currently applied.

Citizens
In 2017, the percentage of citizens in the labor market was 17.7 percent. This increased in 2018 to 18.2 percent and to 18.4 percent in 2019. The numbers continued to rise slightly to 19.7 percent in 2020, before recording a jump to 22.3 percent in 2021, and remaining at approximately the same level in 2022 with 22.2 percent.

According to informed sources, the jump recorded between 2020 and 2021 is not due to the applied plans or visions, but rather as a result of the conditions of the COVID-19 pandemic and the exit of many non-Kuwaitis from the labor market.

Evidence reveal that the increase in the number was not more than normal rates, as the number increased from 400,909 to 424,186, meaning that about 24,000 entered the labor market, compared to the entry of about 14,000 during the period between 2021 and 2022 (from about 424,000 to about 438,000) Due to the COVID-19 pandemic conditions, the years 2020 and 2021 witnessed a decrease in the number of non-Kuwaitis, but it returned to record an increase last year (about 1.6 million in 2020, 1.4 million in 2021 and 1.5 million in 2022).

Source- Arab Times.

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