Tunisia : Employment Strategy, Volume 2. Annexes
In spite of the Government's commitment to social development, with employment resting at the heart of Tunisia's Tenth Development Plan, the recent economic slowdown however, hampers expectations on meeting the employment goals of the Pla...
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| Language: | English en_US |
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Washington, DC
2013
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| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2004/05/4978814/tunisia-employment-strategy-vol-2-2-annexes http://hdl.handle.net/10986/15654 |
| Summary: | In spite of the Government's
commitment to social development, with employment resting at
the heart of Tunisia's Tenth Development Plan, the
recent economic slowdown however, hampers expectations on
meeting the employment goals of the Plan. Output growth
would have to increase significantly in light of unchanged
employment elasticity, to create enough jobs to absorb the
increasing labor force. However, the Tunisian private sector
has not played a dynamic role in terms of job creation:
small and medium scale enterprises (SMEs), are mainly
concentrated in the traditional manufacturing sectors, with
low value-added; enterprise restructuring has not occurred,
mainly due to an economic growth that has not led to enough
reallocation of resources, despite the unexploited
productivity gains in respect to reallocation of labor to
high productivity sector; and, the high unemployment rates
among educated youth, reflect gaps between skills in demand
by employers, and skills offered by job seekers. Within this
context, this report proposes broad policy options to help
improve the country's employment strategy over the
medium term. Several reforms - liberalization of the product
markets, improvement of investment climate, and reforms in
education and vocational training - have been implemented to
improve labor market performance. The overall employment
strategy needs to be based on the fundamentals of sound
economic policies that promote competitive product markets,
and private-sector-led growth, particularly in service
industries. This will require an investment climate, and a
favorable business environment, particularly for SME
development, to promote both employment and productivity
growth in high value-added sectors. Notwithstanding,
investment policies should provide a better balance between
utilization of capital and labor. And, regardless of its
engagement to investments in human resources, Tunisia should
ensure that ongoing reforms in education, and vocational
training focus on market needs. Finally, labor market
regulations and institutions need to be flexible, so as to
adjust to changes in business conditions. This approach
requires a more effective social protection system, through
efficient active labor market programs and, perhaps, through
income support for laid-off workers. |
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