Jobs important file for upcoming govt

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‘Public sector dents budget’

KUWAIT CITY, Nov 21: The employment file is the most important file for the upcoming government. There are three main components that it must achieve according to the development and economic indicators – regulating employment in the government sector, increasing the proportion of national employment in the private sector, and dealing with the liquidity shortage called for by successive ministers of the Ministry of Finance in light of the obligation to pay salaries, reports Al-Qabas daily. Even though the employment figures in the government sector seem to be an achievement for the Civil Service Commission (CSC) by reducing the waiting list of job seekers from 16,000 to just 7,000 within five years, these figures raise an alarm at the same time about a huge number of employees in the government sector without an economic value, and without meeting the goals of the development plan in the country. Looking at these numbers, it can be described as worthless. On the surface, young people are being employed but on the inside, it is a burden on the administrative sector and the state budget.

Development
The country’s second development plan 2015-2020 stipulates regulating employment in the government sector in return for increasing the percentage of national cadres in the private sector by identifying about 10,000 new job opportunities for Kuwaitis in the government sector. However, the CSC figures indicate the appointment of 20,000 graduates on an annual basis, which is double the anticipated figure. It seems that the employment file should be tackled both in the governmental and private sectors in order to achieve the developmental ambition of investing in national cadres.

This can be achieved in the event that other employment sectors are able to increase the percentage of national employment in the private sector, as well as develop support for young entrepreneurs through the National Fund to Support Small and Medium Enterprises, so that the government sector can breathe, and the overcrowding in government agencies can decrease. On the other hand, the CSC’s table is crowded with other files, which are also deemed necessary, as they involve the private sector’s role in employing young people. In recent years, there has been a stumble in the nomination of graduates of some scientific disciplines, including engineering and artistic disciplines.

Mechanism
CSC took new steps in the mechanism of nominating citizens who are looking for work. They include nomination as the citizens register, instead of making them wait for batches, as well as the nomination of Kuwaitis instead of expatriates when there is a Kuwaiti, who is registered with the central employment system, available in the same specialty. This has contributed to reducing the number of job seekers. Although CSC has approached higher education institutions after identifying the disciplines that suffer from a scarcity of national cadres and those with a surplus of graduates, it still suffers from the accumulation of job seekers in some disciplines.

This necessitates more cooperation with the higher education institutions to control education outcomes to keep pace with the labor market. The recent government tasks to CSC seemed to have others added to its duties in the next government, foremost of which is setting new controls for appointing leaders and supervisors, reviewing the mechanism of granting financial benefits to employees, and linking them to achievement, as well as implementing a project to prepare a national center for staff development in the government administrative sector. CSC will soon enter, with the new government, the final year of the resolution No. 11/2017 regarding the rules and procedures for Kuwaitization of government jobs. This resolution had given the authorities five years to achieve the required rate for Kuwaitization. Some job groups still did not achieve the required rates, due to which questions are being raised as to whether these rates will be achieved within the next few months.

This news has been read 17877 times!