Women on the Arab labour market. Option becoming reality

Abstract

The key potential of Arab economies, currently rather turning into their curse, is the human capital. According to the Arab Human Development Report 2002 there are approximately 6 million entrants yearly to the Arab labour market (UNDP 2002: 10) and the labour force is expected to grow in the next 10 years to 3,4% yearly―twice as much as in other developing regions (World Bank 2003: 3). The ‘demographic gift’―the growing number of labour force and decreasing dependency ratio, might lead to economic growth―if used properly. However, in case of most Arab countries, labour demand doesn’t meet the supply, which translates into huge unemployment rates, being among the highest in the world.