Syria Today | Labour inVain

How the crisis is costing Syria its human resources.

By Sarah Abu Assali
Photo Adel Samara

Unemployment, emigration, brain drain, mandatory military service and the failure to address youth issues are but some of the hardships that have long afflicted Syria's workforce. Most recently, the crisis has only aggravated these existing problems which cannot be easily fixed or managed by efficient interventions due to the current political turmoil.

Forced to go
Mandatory military service has always been one of the main reasons behind youth emigration. 21.4 percent of Syria's total population is between 15 and 24 years old, according to the Syrian Commission for Family Affairs.

And although the term of military service was reduced from 21 to 18 months in March 2011, this was followed by a decision in late November to suspend the delay of military conscription for administrative or schooling reasons, according to the official news agency SANA. As a result, dozens of young men left the country at short notice to avoid undergoing military service immediately.

"I cannot do [military service] under such circumstances," said a 31-year-old accountant who requested anonymity. After speedily arranging to leave the country, he is now working on a short-term contract in Dubai.

He recalled: "I would have loved to stay in my country, by my family and friends at such a times, but I was forced out. And I'm not the only one; I know at least 20 male friends who travelled to Beirut or other Arab countries as soon as they heard that they could no longer postpone [their military conscription]".

Kinan Bahnassi, labour market consultant and head of the Labour Market Observatory Unit at the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, explained that though it is premature to measure the direct effects of the crisis on the labour force, it is well known that "a waste has been happening in terms of skills and qualifications," particularly due to the mandatory military service.

From a leak to a gush
For decades, brain drain has siphoned off Syria's best and brightest. In its 2011-2012 report, the Global Competiveness Index ranked Syria 110 out of 142 in terms of brain drain. The current unrest has significantly increased these losses.

On November 5, Anwar Bader wrote in London-based daily Al-Quds Al-Arabi that Syrian artists and intellectuals, especially those who oppose the Syrian regime, "are increasingly leaving the country due to the security situation". As examples, Bader cited dozens of Syrian intellectuals such as writer Rima Fleihan, actor Fares al-Hilou, author Samar Yazbek, and most recently, Armenian singer Lena Shamamian, all of whom fled the country because of political concerns and "fears of a civil war".

However security is not the only concern. Artists, intellectuals and scientists are also leaving the country due to the lack of state policies that promote and foster scientific intelligence and research.

But some argue there might be a reversal of brain drain trend following the uprising.

In an October interview with Nature Middle East, an international weekly scientific journal, Syrian expatriate astrophysicist Rim Turkmani said that a political change in the country might encourage Syria's scientifically skilled workers to return to the country.

Turkmani, who teaches at Imperial College in London, argued that "many aspiring scientists in Syria seek not only opportunity, but also freedom and dignity, which is why they go abroad...The more freedom there is, the fewer brains Syria will lose and the more brains are going to come back…These assets will be desperately needed in a future Syria."

Bleak prospects
Even before protests started, a study from the Syrian Commission for Family Affairs published in February reported that 34 percent of Syrian youth consider emigrating due to "bad economic situations". Moreover, 26 percent of Syrian males and 15.8 percent of females between the ages of 15 and 24 - mostly from the "limited income" earnings level, or between SYP 4000 (USD 73) to SYP 8000 (USD 146) per month - think about leaving the country in search of better economic and work opportunities. Unrest has made the lack of prospects even worse, as sanctions imposed on Syria by the EU, US and the Arab League over the past nine months have dealt a strong blow to the country's labour market.

"We are to going to start observing some distortion in the structure of the labour market and this will bring people closer to the poverty line, leading [them] to do anything possible to secure their living," Bahnassi argued.

In September, the International Monetary Fund indicated that it expects Syria's economy to contract by 2 percent this year. As a result of this contraction, many businesses have started to lay off or downsize the number of their employees or even cut down working hours to reduce expenses and wages.

Chaghaf Howyek, 26, recently lost her job as an architect in a private company which depends mainly on large engineering projects. Due to the lack of opportunities in Syria she decided to leave the country. "As soon as the crisis began, we stopped having new projects, which forced the company owners to close the business down and forced me to leave the country in search of a work opportunity," Howyek, who now lives in Canada, told Syria Today.

The Central Bureau for Statistics (CBS) indicates that the unemployment rate for 2011 is 8.6 percent and about 20.4 percent among young people. However, Minister of Labour and Social Affairs Radwan al-Habib stated that the actual figure is 22-30 percent based on recent surveys, and there are 250,000 new entrants to the labour market every year, private daily Al-Watan reported on December 13.

Practical solutions
The World Economic Forum's Competiveness Report for 2011-2012 ranked Syria 134 out of 142 countries in terms of labour market efficiency. It listed the most problematic factors for doing business as corruption, an inadequately educated workforce, an inefficient government bureaucracy, a poor work ethic in the national labour force and restrictive labour regulations.

However, the Labour Market Observatory in the Syrian Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs reports that since the crisis began, the government has been rigorously implementing measures to address current unemployment.

One involves hiring people on a five-year contract basis, and another entails paying people to work for the private sector through the Public Commission for Enterprise Development. The government would pay the new employees for two years, but the job seeker has to sign a contract with the government for five years in order to channel youth skills into the private sector.

On December 13, the government also raised the age limit for candidates in a programme which seeks to employ young graduates in the public sector from 30 to 35 years starting in 2012. According to Habib, the programme will provide 50,000 jobs in the course of the 11th Five-Year Plan, which began in January 2011.

Bahnassi told Syria Today that the government will face difficulties in formulating fiscal policy for next year, especially given that the main focus now is to stabilise the political situation.

"It all depends on how long the crisis will last," he explained. "Also, apart from the small percentage [of people] who have the option to leave the country and enter competitive markets, the rest who cannot arrange for that will just stay, and this will cause discouragement and frustration."