Countries in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) – Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates – have made tremendous progress in the past decades, building cities at the forefront of innovation, becoming global leaders in select industries, and continuously expanding their global aspirations. Yet, to sustain this momentum, dramatic progress needs to be achieved in how young people, a demographic majority, engage in the economy and society at large.

At present, however, even with wide acknowledgment of the importance of the matter and despite decades of economic expansion and extensive investments in education, infrastructure projects, and economic diversification, high youth unemployment rates persist, often reaching double digits.

Against this backdrop, the report Rethinking Arab Employment: A Systemic Approach for Resource-Endowed Economies provides a holistic analysis of the employment situation in GCC countries, outlining the deep-rooted social and economic behaviours that drive youth unemployment and shedding light on the vulnerabilities of the current employment model. The report works to understand the issue from stakeholders’ diverse perspectives and provides principles for the design of interventions to support policy-makers and business leaders in addressing the issue effectively.

Published by the World Economic Forum