Holy Schizophrenia: Of Middle East Unemployment Analysis and Our Own Devil
“The increase in women’s unemployment boosted the percentage of people out of work in the kingdom from 9.8 per cent to 10 per cent over the same period, though this figure was down from August 2007, when unemployment stood at 11 per cent, the deputy minister of labour, Abdul Wahid al Humaid, said.“The ministry of labour deliberately forces Saudis into low-end jobs while high-end jobs are abundant in the country,” said Mohammed Fahad al Qahtani, a leading reformer and professor of economics at the Riyadh-based Institute of Diplomatic Studies…….”
My humble but highly educated approach: I would take the official unemployment figures for any Middle East country and add somewhere between 50% to 75%, depending on the country and the year in question.
Based on anecdotal reports, let’s give Saudi Arabia an average error margin of doubt of 62.5 %. The 6.9% unemployment figure above is more likely to be really around 11.2% for Saudi men. The figure would be much higher for some other regional countries, but among petroleum exporters only Iran has a much larger unemployment rate (also higher than they admit).
I know, the IMF would stick to the official figure or something close to it, as international bureaucrats are wont to do, but it is not true.
As for women: oy veyyyyy…...
But how do they measure unemployment? Especially among women who are not allowed to work in many sectors, nay in most sectors, of the economy?
In a society where many sectors are closed to women; where transportation is an important obstacle to work. Women cannot drive, cannot ride taxis alone, cannot ride a car with a strange man, or use other public means of transport with other working men who might seduce them or even assault them right then and there. Especially with the devil always inserting himself between any man and woman who are within sneezing distance, nay ogling distance, of each other. Our Middle East devils always do that, unlike the laid back Western devils who tend to be more selective.
Besides the legal and social obstacles, there are many deliberate bureaucratic obstacles put up against women who want to run their own businesses, even though they would hire other women to work for them.
I am not talking about ‘chic employment’, of women of means, women of the elite who don’t need the income. These are daughters of those who own the country, or of their retainers. They manage to find something to do, to ward off boredom while hubby is busy.
But what of the masses of the middle class, lower middle class, and the poor (yes, there are poor, really poor, people in the kingdom)?
How can you measure how people many are seeking jobs and even how many are actually employed in the private sector? When other usual means of measuring employment are not available and do not apply.
In an economy that is as schizophrenic as its whole society is. It truly defies analysis. It can be done, of course, but it takes access, which nobody can have but officially sanctioned researchers- if there are any.
Cheers
mhg
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