After unemployment declined in 2022… expectations of a breakthrough in employment and “reconstruction”

Did the unemployment rate decline in Libya during 2022, and do some believe the expectations of a breakthrough during the year 2023 in the reconstruction file and thus in the employment sector? maybe. According to statements by officials in the Interim National Unity Government, the number of unemployed people decreased to 220,000 from 340,000 in previous years, while the number of job seekers reached a quarter of a million people who registered their data with the Ministry of Labor and Rehabilitation.
According to statements by Ministry of Labor spokesman Abdul Qader Abushnaf to Al-Wasat Channel (WTV), broadcast on the “Eqtisad Plus” program, these statistics need to be officially reviewed and audited, noting that there are no accurate percentages of unemployment rates in Libya.

Estimates of unemployment rates in Libya
According to varying statistics, unemployment rates range between 19% and 30%, while the types of unemployment vary, between those who cannot find work at all (explicit unemployment) and those who receive a salary and are restricted to a government job without working effectively or productively (disguised unemployment).
Abushnaf pointed out that there are 100,000 graduates annually in Libya, while the poverty rate is 42%, according to data from the Ministry of Social Affairs of the Interim Government of National Unity, while poverty has caused citizens to search for additional work.

On July 27, 2022, the Minister of Labor and Rehabilitation in the Interim National Unity Government, Ali Al-Abed, said that the number of job seekers registered in the system had decreased from 340,000 to 220,000, indicating that the number of employees in the country had increased to exceed two million and 400,000 employees.
However, observers of the Libyan issue believe that state institutions do not need this huge amount of new employees in their ministerial sectors, and they explain that “this increase may result in violations in the disbursement of salaries, an issue that was the subject of correspondence between the head of the Audit Bureau, Khaled Shakshak, and the government of Abdul Hamid Al-Dabaiba, where Shakshak sent A few months ago, I wrote a letter to the Prime Minister of the Interim National Unity Government regarding the inflation in job cadres and the number of workers in the state’s administrative apparatus.

Those deprived of their salaries
Last August 22, Al-Dabaiba responded that “his government has not contracted or appointed any new employees, but is treating the salaries of employees who have been working for years without obtaining their rights.”

In the latest annual report of the Audit Bureau, a noticeable increase was observed in the salaries section compared to previous years, as the increase for the year 2020 amounted to about 5.8 billion dinars and about 8.4 billion dinars for the year 2015, in which the implementation of the national number on salaries began.

Although the government sector contains large numbers of employees; Unemployment is rampant at rates that have stabilized at 19% over the past ten years, according to estimates by international financial institutions. At a time when the item of public wages and salaries doubled to reach 17% of the gross domestic product in Libya, according to the International Monetary Fund.

Most young people are employees
Al-Abed, in an interview broadcast on the “Our Government” platform on Facebook, confirmed that there is no accurate figure for the unemployment rate in Libya, nor is there any data for workers in the private sector, but “unemployment in Libya is legal unemployment, so that we do not have unemployment under the name of unemployment,” pointing out that “Most young people have jobs either in the private sector or in the state.”

Regarding programs for training citizens with foreign companies and integrating them into the private sector in all regions of Libya, the Minister of Labor and Rehabilitation pointed out that there is a plan to train job seekers in three locations: the first is the iron and steel factory in Misrata, the second is the competency raising center in Zawiya, and the third is the Man-made River Project training center in Benghazi.

Integrating young people from armed groups into the labor market
Al-Abed also referred to the program to integrate young people who join armed groups, as one of the basic projects to support the stability of Libya. It is an initiative aimed at qualifying and reintegrating young people who have joined armed groups into the ranks of work, not necessarily including them in the Ministries of Defense or Interior, but training them and including them in civilian and professional jobs. On October 23, 2021, the Ministry of Labor and Rehabilitation launched an initiative aimed at rehabilitating and reintegrating young people affiliated with armed formations into the ranks of work, as it indicated at the time “the formation of subcommittees and holding meetings in the presence of the Chief of Staff, the Ministry of Interior, and also the Libyan Rehabilitation Program regarding developing adequate plans.”

The Minister recalled the initiative on September 27, 2021, when he announced the obligation of companies participating in the reconstruction program to allocate 30% of their workforce to Libyans, in accordance with the laws and legislation regulating the labor market in Libya, saying: “Any company that brings in workers is committed to employing 30% of Libyan researchers.” from work, in addition to 20% for training.”

Manpower management strategy in Libya
In mid-December, the Ministry of Labor and Rehabilitation participated with the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Interior in a workshop to study the feasibility of manpower management in Libya, with the support of the International Organization for Migration (IOM Libya) and the European Union Mission in Libya. The experiences of Italy, Spain and Morocco in benefiting from unorganized foreign labor were presented. The best ways to settle their situation, especially the group that entered through legal means and through official outlets.

The Ministry of Labor presented its strategy regarding this file and the measures that have been taken regarding unorganized labor, such as launching the Wafid platform for recruitment and settling the conditions of expatriate workers in legal ways in accordance with applicable laws and legislation, as well as signing several memorandums of understanding to exchange labor according to the needs of the Libyan labor market with several countries, including Egypt. Niger and Tunisia, as well as moving to conclude other memorandums with several countries in the near future to reduce the phenomenon of unorganized labor.

Reconstruction
Employment and unemployment figures in Libya are linked to another file, which is reconstruction, and estimates of the cost of rebuilding Libya vary. According to the economic forum held in Italy in August 2021, the cost of infrastructure, energy, water, health, and other projects amounts to half a trillion dollars, while local estimates range between 100 and 200 billion dollars. During the next ten years, at $10 billion annually.

In September 2022, the Minister of Economic Affairs in the government of Abdul Hamid Al-Dabaiba, Salama Al-Ghawil, announced that the reconstruction bill was estimated at about 111 billion dollars, and he said during his visit to the Egyptian capital, Cairo, that Egyptian companies would receive the lion’s share of the projects, at 70 percent.

In December 2021, days after the launch of the electronic link system to organize and facilitate the movement of workers between Egypt and Libya to participate in reconstruction and projects to return life to normal, the Minister of Labor and Rehabilitation, Ali Al-Abed, said that his ministry has a plan to bring Egyptian workers to Libya, stressing that “Libya aims to receive about Two million Egyptian workers over the next two years, to participate in the reconstruction of Libya.

He explained that “Egyptian workers are flocking to Libya, and according to the plan to bring Egyptian workers to Libya, it is scheduled to target about two million workers, who will be recruited in two stages over two years, to include 3 to 4 batches with a total of one million workers in 2022, and one million in the following year for the construction sectors.” Construction and construction of bridges, roads, bridges, and infrastructure facilities.

The Minister of Labor and Rehabilitation indicated that a percentage of Egyptian workers would be allocated to the sectors of doctors, nursing, and education to be used in operating vital health and educational facilities.

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