Youth in crisis in the Middle East and North Africa: systematic literature review and focused landscape analysis

Fehling, M; Jarrah, Zina Maan; Tiernan, M E; Albezreh, S; VanRooyen, Michael J.; Alhokair, A; Nelson, Brett D.

doi:10.26719/2015.21.12.916

Cited by 12 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 28 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Using retrospective data, they found high level of segmentation in the labor market with workers who enter in a vulnerable position (defined as contributing family worker or self-employed) being less likely to transition to informal, and especially to formal, paid work. Such vulnerability of employment has serious socioeconomic repercussions for MENA-region youth, including for their economic wellbeing, marriage prospects, education, mental health and prevalence of conflict and violence (Fehling et al , 2016; Ehab, 2019).…”

Section: Related Literature and Country Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%

Youth labor market vulnerabilities: evidence from Egypt, Jordan and Tunisia

AlAzzawi

Hlásny

2022

IJM

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate the prevalence and drivers of employment vulnerability among youth in Egypt, Jordan and Tunisia, and their propensity to transition to better jobs over time.Design/methodology/approachThe analysis is based on longitudinal data from Labor Market Panel Surveys spanning 6–20 years. The authors use transition matrices to examine the prevalence of transitions between labor market statuses for the same individuals over time, distinguishing between youth and non-youth, and men and women, as well as multinomial logistic regressions that control for individual and family background, including previous labor market status, family wealth and parental education.FindingsThe paper finds that youth in all three countries were disadvantaged in terms of labor market outcomes with most young men in particular ending up in vulnerable jobs while women of all ages were most likely to exit the labor market all together, unless they had formal jobs. Moreover, youth who started out in the labor market in a vulnerable job were unlikely to move to a better-quality job over time. Family wealth, parental education and father's occupation were found to be important determinants of labor market outcomes and vulnerability, even after a long period of work experience.Social implicationsThe paper finds that wealth effects, parental education and occupation effects follow workers throughout their careers, implying low equality of opportunity and inter-generational and lifetime mobility.Originality/valueThe findings indicate worsening labor market outcomes over time, heavily influenced by family background. High levels of vulnerable employment persistence, regardless of skill and experience, reinforce the importance of initial labor market outcome on the quality of lifetime employment prospects.

show abstract

Section: Related Literature and Country Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%

Youth labor market vulnerabilities: evidence from Egypt, Jordan and Tunisia

AlAzzawi

Hlásny

2022

IJM

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Much has been written about the precariousness of employment conditions in the Middle East and North African (MENA) region, particularly among marginally attached groups, including fresh graduates and women [e.g. Ozturkler 2014;Fehling et al 2016;Chen and Harvey 2017]. Numerous empirical studies have assessed the sources of the inequitable and unbalanced state of the labour markets [e.g.…”

Section: Motivationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Social Capital and Workers' Job Prospects in the MENA Region

Lee¹,

Hlásny²

2023

Czech Sociological Review

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Social networks and collective trust have been studied in relation to civil uprisings such as the Arab Spring events of 2011. Social capital is also an important factor in the Middle East and North African (MENA) labour markets, where 'wasta' family connections are said to affect workers' opportunities. Little is known, however, about MENA citizens' social capital and its composition and distribution across socio-economic groups. As an advanced foundation on which to build future analyses, we propose a stochastic approach for measuring people's social capital using Bayesian clustering, based on three dimensions: level of social activity, quality of social networks, and trust. Applying the method to the 2000-2014 World Values Surveys for 16 MENA countries, we describe the composition and distribution of workers' social capital within and between countries, and estimate ordered-probability regressions of workers' employment outcomes as a function of the dimensions of social capital, workers' demographics, and subjective health assessment. We find that, among the three dimensions of social capital, social trust is most clearly conducive to the employment and full-time status of both genders. The level of social activity is associated with more autonomous, intellectual and creative occupations among men, but only with more creative occupations among women. Higher-quality social networks are associated with more autonomous jobs, but also less creative ones. Interestingly, trust is associated with non-autonomous, manual, and routine jobs. In creative jobs favoured by the Fourth Industrial Revolution, workers are selected from those with higher socializing levels but inhibited networks and trust.

show abstract

“…Informality and unemployment are not distributed uniformly across the MENA population and economic sectors. Youth unemployment and job informality, in particular, have been pervasive features of the MENA labour markets (Fehling et al, 2016;Suleiman, 2022). Fresh graduates, if they succeed at finding employment, land informal or irregular jobs.…”

Section: The Context Of Labour Shocksmentioning

confidence: 99%

Labour Market Segmentation and Formalising Informality in Mena Countries

Adair¹,

Hlásny²

2022

Proceedings of the 17th Economics &Amp; Finance Conference, Istanbul

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

We tackle the problems of labour market segmentation and low occupational mobility in MENA countries in relation to prospective formalisation policies. First, we provide an overview of the informal economy in its taxonomy, coverage and stylised facts, and drivers, across six MENA countries. Second, using longitudinal microdata from Labor Market Panel Surveys and COVID-19 MENA Monitors, we apply transition matrices and multinomial logistic regressions to analyse workers' occupational mobility according to their pre-existing status, age cohort, gender and other demographics. We find persistent segmentation and weak occupational mobility in all countries, suggesting that informal employment is not driven by choice on the labour supply side but by structural constraints on the demand side. Third, assessing the existing formalisation policies encapsulating distinct stick and carrot strategies, and business versus worker targeting, we find rather modest impacts. We submit that promoting social and solidarity enterprises, and extending microfinance to informal enterprises holds a promise for the creation of formal, decent jobs.

show abstract

Youth in crisis in the Middle East and North Africa: systematic literature review and focused landscape analysis

Cited by 12 publications

References 28 publications

Youth labor market vulnerabilities: evidence from Egypt, Jordan and Tunisia

Youth labor market vulnerabilities: evidence from Egypt, Jordan and Tunisia

Social Capital and Workers' Job Prospects in the MENA Region

Labour Market Segmentation and Formalising Informality in Mena Countries

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About