KUWAIT CITY, March 26: The Public Manpower Authority (PAM) is finalizing a plan to increase the proportion of jobs for citizens by about 70 percent in the private sector by 2020 and increase to 85 percent in early 2021, reports Annahar daily.

These trends are part of the state plan to give jobs to citizens in all sectors and reduce unemployment and soon decisions will be issued requiring large private sector companies and banks to meet these decisions with the next fiscal year.

The Annahar sources revealed that the new decisions to develop and adjust the ratio of jobs in the private sector come in light of economic reforms, population structure and absorption of education outputs, while investors warned of the high financial burden on the labor sector, especially the small and medium enterprises (SMEs) sector due to financial pressures resulting from higher wages.

SMEs will be most affected by the increase in the cost of labor through the resettlement of jobs, which contradicts the vision of the state, as these enterprises and institutions cannot afford the high operating costs

Amendments
The sources said that the government and the official authorities seek to encourage citizens and to work in the private sector.

The National Assembly approved in early March consultations on amendments to the labor law in the private sector, which will give citizens many advantages to work, including increasing end of service benefits and increasing vacation time (annual leave) and other features to attract citizens to the private sector and not wait for government jobs.

Official sources said that the aim of raising the rate of employment in the private sector will contribute effectively to support national employment in non-governmental organizations, and to provide new jobs for job seeking graduates of universities and institutes and secondary education and help employ about 17,000 Kuwaitis and replace the expatriates in the private sector gradually.

According to the statistics, total employment in the private sector is 446,200 workers. While about 58 percent of unemployed Kuwaitis prefer to work in the government sector and do not accept the private sector, and 39 percent accept employment regardless of whether they are in the private or government sector.

Meanwhile, the job grades for the new expatriate teachers to be appointed by Ministry of Education during the academic year 2019/2020 will be prepared by Civil Service Commission (CSC) in August based on the requirements of the ministry and the new schools for male and female teachers, reports Al-Rai daily quoting educational sources.

They said CSC has informed the ministry that no job grades will be allocated for expatriate employees of the ministry except for those occupying the teaching positions. The sources indicated that Ministry of Education actually requires 680 male and female teachers but it, as always, will recruit only 400-500 teachers, affirming the completion of foreign recruitment committees last week for hiring teachers from Palestine, Jordan and Tunisia.