Unemployed Kuwaitis before COVID-19 crisis stands 30,000

The CEO of Festivity Company (for managing internet websites) Nasser Al-Tuwaijri presented an analytical study in which he has dissected data related to the demographics of Kuwait. The study relied on the analysis of preliminary data issued by Public Authority for Civil Information until December 2019.

Al-Tuwaijri classified the available data on the basis of education, age, job type, and nationality groups (definition of nationality groups: grouping of nationalities of individuals according to categories of countries with special association such as language and geographical location, and those groups are internationally recognized such as: Arab countries, non-Arab Asian countries, non- Arab African countries and European countries).

He explained that he submitted the study due to a number of reasons, perhaps the most important of which was the sensitivity and confidentiality of information circulating in some government sectors concerning the high number of unemployed Kuwaitis, which stood at 30,000 citizens as at the end of 2019.

He pointed out that basic data analysis points to 120,000 non- Kuwaiti employees working in government sector, approximately 150,000 non-Kuwaiti women on full-time domestic work, and 4,000 unemployed non-Kuwaitis.

Employment
He added that Arab employment rate among the 120,000 non-Kuwaiti employees in public sector reached 67%, while Asians constitute 30%, and the remaining (3%) distributed among Americans, Australians, Africans and Europeans.

Regarding the educational attainment of foreign workers in government sector, Al-Tuwaijri pointed out that there are 25,000 (Arab) employees holding secondary school certificates or lower, and 5,500 employees can read and write though they’re without certificate.

About 22,000 employees (Asian) hold high school certificate or lower, and 7,500 employees can only read and write without certificate (hospitality and cleaning workers are not considered among government sector employees, because they are private sector employees working in government sector under a contract or tender).

On the level of Arab women, Al-Tuwaijri explained that the category of Arab women in fulltime domestic work reaches about 10,000, out of the total 150,000 non-Kuwaiti women in full-time domestic work, while the number of those with intermediate certificate or lower have reached about 62,000 women, with 190 women holding higher degree from universities who work full time at home.

As for employees’ age, he said the percentage of Arab employees working in government sector who are over 55 years old reaches 18% (approximately 12,500 employees) out of the total population of Arab employees, pointing to 10 employees under the age of 19 working in government sector.

The total number of Arabs below the age of 25 is close to 1,000 employees, adding the number of Arabs working in government sector and those over 55 years of age holding diplomas has reached 7,000 employees. He added Arabs with lower degrees (primary or lower) working in government sector constitute approximately 2,700 employees and about 460 Arab employees without diploma are over 55 years old and serving as legislators, senior officials, managers, and specialists.

Source : Arab Times

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