Youth Unemployment

The Study addresses basically the issue of youth unemployment within the overall context of the Lebanese labor market conditions. It has proposed an in-depth analysis of the conditions prevailing in the Lebanese labor market, and associates the impact of the Lebanese civil strife that raged the country in 1975, on the socio-economic structure of the country, affecting mostly the Lebanese economy. The study was divided into four sections:

1. An overview of the Lebanese labor market;

2. The youth labor market and the factors contributing to youth unemployment;

3. Programs and policies adopted to alleviate youth unemployment:

a) At the governmental level

b) At the non-governmental level

4. Conclusions and policy recommendations.

The study concluded with a number of foresights, including:

Youth unemployment cannot be examined except in the overall context of the labor market. The salient features of the Lebanese labor market could be summarized as follows:

1. The Lebanese labor force is relatively young and well educated;

2. Women constitute 20% of the labor force;

3. The service sector employs the bulk of the Lebanese workers;

4. Foreign labor is present in the market in massive numbers;

5. Migration of skilled Lebanese labor is a traditional trend, which has been accentuated as a result of the war.

The civil strife has led to an increase in the level of unemployment. Unemployment has essentially hit young people below 25 years of age and affected young women more adversely that young men. Youth unemployment has been relatively low in terms of duration for those below the age of 17, while its average is around one year for those aged between 24 and 25 years. In addition to the above, determinants of youth unemployment were defined under factors affecting on one hand, the demand for and on the other, the supply of youth labor. On the demand side, one could trace the negative impact of three variables on youth unemployment:

1. The