KUWAIT: A general view of Al-Shaheed Park in Kuwait City. - Photo by Hatim Al-Sheikh (KUNA)

KUWAIT: The Manpower and Government Restructuring Program’s deputy director for national labor affairs Iman Al-Ansari announced that the program managed to employ 4,775 citizens in the private sector during the first quarter of this year, adding that a new bill has been submitted to the Cabinet requesting increasing the mandatory percentage of citizens in the private sector to create over 10,000 jobs during 2018-2019.

In an effort to make more citizens work for the private sector, the government plans to conduct a survey about ‘temporary jobs’ in Kuwait with the aim of remapping the local labor market in the foreseeable future. Informed sources said the Supreme Council for Planning and Development offered a new tender for bidding to consultancy firms requesting the preparation of a full study, survey and data lists about temporary jobs in the market so that expats in those jobs could be replaced by citizens.

The sources added that such a measure will help the government employ around 17,000 citizens in the private sector, especially since latest Civil Service Commission statistics show that around 13,500 citizens are unemployed. Notably, CSC statistics also show that 72 percent of government employees are citizens and 28 percent expats, while 96 percent of private sector employees are non-Kuwaitis versus only four percent citizens.

By A Saleh