Jobless Arabs estimated at 22m

Number of the unemployed in Arab countries sky-rocketed in end of 2013, reaching 22 million job seekers, according to a report released by the Diplomatic Center for Strategic Studies on Monday.
Number of the jobless people in the Arab countries is forecast to reach 80 million by 2025, it said, noting that the figures have been compiled on basis of official data.
Unemployment is one of the major hurdles facing development in the Arab states, the report said, noting also that the rate of Arabs without work is the highest in the world.
Arab work force growth is the fastest in the globe, thus speedy and effective solutions must be found to tackle this key problem.
It linked the mounting unemployment in the Arab world to high population growth, failure to graduate university students of specializations needed in the labor market, fall of domestic gross economic product, applying economic openness in many Arab countries, along with privatization that resulted in dismissing a large number of workers.
Citing other reasons, it mentioned youth abstention from vocational work, fears of involvement in free business and shortage of enterprises intended to shore up the Arab economies. It also cited bad planning and lack of useful data for job seekers.
Transit to democracy continued to overshadow conditions in the Arab world, coupled with uncertainty and fall of Arab states' economic growth to 2.6 percent (in 2013), it said, noting that the "Arab spring" events resulted in losses, estimated at USD 800 billion.