More Jobs, Better Jobs : A Priority for Egypt
Much of the current debate around the recent economic crisis in the Arab Republic of Egypt has focused on unemployment. Although unemployment is an important marker of labor market health, the jobs problem in Egypt precedes the recent crisis and is...
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| Format: | Other Poverty Study |
| Language: | English en_US |
| Published: |
Washington, DC
2014
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| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2014/06/20318997/arab-republic-egypt-more-jobs-better-jobs-priority-egypt http://hdl.handle.net/10986/20584 |
| Summary: | Much of the current debate around the
recent economic crisis in the Arab Republic of Egypt has
focused on unemployment. Although unemployment is an
important marker of labor market health, the jobs problem in
Egypt precedes the recent crisis and is manifested markedly
in other labor market metrics. Indeed, the link between
growth and unemployment in Egypt is weak, particularly for
men. This chapter argues that the reason for this weak link
is partly related to decades of flawed industrial policies
that have discouraged investment in employment-generating
activities. Industrial policies, including those implemented
in the mid-2000s, were never focused on mitigating market
failures to promote the emergence of fast-growing,
high-productivity firms. Instead, they have worked to
preserve insider privileges, leading to growth in sectors
that are not labor intensive. Policy makers therefore need
to look beyond supply-side focused labor market policies to
accelerate employment growth. |
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