Still the Employer of Choice

Abstract

The public sector in Egypt provides relatively generous benefits, particularly when compared to the working conditions in the predominantly informal private sector in the country. For this reason, it has been described as the employer of choice among youth in Egypt. This chapter shows a continued preference of government hiring, using the Egypt Labor Market Panel Survey (ELMPS) 2018 data. The analysis also shows that the share of the sector in employment has been declining. Inside the government, we show that the sector is becoming more educated as it consistently hires more workers with university and post-graduate education. Focusing on those employed in the government, the analysis over time shows that the sector is becoming slightly more feminized and is aging. This reflects the evolution of hiring policies in the sector. Despite an increasing presence of women in the sector, it has not reached gender parity.

Fostering decent jobs, formalising informal employment and spurring job mobility in MENA countries

“…The public sector has been giving way to the private sector in recent decades as the main employer, but private‐sector jobs have become more precarious and less likely to carry long‐term contracts (Amer, 2009, 2012, 2015; Assaad, 2012). In Egypt, the role of connections in securing pubic‐sector jobs has grown since the 1990s (Barsoum & Abdalla, 2020). In Jordan, Mryyan (2012) and Assaad et al (2014, Chap.…”

Labour market dynamics and youth unemployment in the Middle East and North Africa: Evidence from Egypt, Jordan, and Tunisia

“…The lower female unemployment rates and relatively lower female long-term unemployment in Tunisia may be related to higher rates of employment for women in Tunisia than Jordan or Egypt (Alazzawi & Hlasny, 2022). In Egypt and Jordan, most of these long-term unemployed women are holding out for a government job, but have little desire or inclination to accept a job, especially an informal job, in the private sector, which is usually what is available to them (Barsoum & Abdalla, 2022).…”