Labor Minister: Developing a Strategy to Accommodate Work Force in the Labor Market

DAMASCUS, (ST) -The Minister of Labor, Dr. Hassan Hijazi stressed the need of developing a strategy for a short and long term strategy to accommodate the current and future workforce and giving technical education the adequate attention to graduate cadres capable of creating jobs.

In a study on “Analysis of the labor force in Syria, under the current demographic reality and future prospects” the minister pointed to the importance of linking population policy with the development process to take advantage of the growing population and turning it from an economic and social problem to a human productive power and the optimal use of human and material potential in increasing the national product, improving the standard of living of individuals, accommodating  the expansion of the population increase to remove the contradiction between demographic and socio-economic changes and therefore to address this contradiction.

The minister explained the need to absorb the unemployed from the labor force within the building trades, pointing out that the ministry in cooperation with the Ministry of Public Works announced for the establishment of vocational training courses in a number of provinces to prepare workers for the next phase.

He pointed to the importance of studying the expected population increase in the labor force and distribution in the economic sectors and at the level of other governorates in accordance with the sections of different economic activity and knowing how does it absorb of the expected increase in light of the development of its activity in the future and putting the plans and detailed programs annually to create jobs for the surplus numbers until 2021.

The Ministry of Labor has provided an analytical study of the labor force in Syria and the future estimates of its development and the proposed strategy to be absorbed in the labor market, according to a new structure taking into account the population and educational dimension.

And about some of the indicators included in the study, the minister pointed out that labor force growth rates exceeded population growth rates in addition to the female participation in the labor force is still low which requires more efforts to increase women’s participation in economic activity .

 The structural construction of the labor force according to the study indicates to a clear reduction in the size of the labor force in the agricultural sector for the benefit of other economic sectors, especially the service sector, despite the increase in agricultural production in recent years, which shows that the evolution in this sector is the result of greater reliance on the capital-intensive at the expense of labor-intensive.

“The ministry will develop programs of necessary work to absorb the labor force in excess of the required demand expected in the public and private sectors, pointing out that the construction sector is the most frequently sector used for the work force during the coming period, especially as the job opportunities in this sector are less expensive and what you need is a rehabilitation and training, and this is what the ministry is working,” the minister confirmed. 

The work force in Syria concentrates on the age group between 20 and 44 years old accounting for this category accounted for 65 percent for males and 76 percent for females and the number of workers in the public sector records about 26 percent of the labor force, while workers in the private sector form 70 percent, according to 2011 data.

Sharif el -Khatib