By A Saleh

KUWAIT: Chairman of the parliamentary manpower committee MP Khalil Al-Saleh said the committee discussed various proposals to be included in a single report on employing children of Kuwaiti women. "There is a plan to set a timeline to prioritize appointing Kuwaiti women's children in various state bodies," Saleh added, noting that their employment procedures and privileges will be set by each body.

Saleh noted that the committee had been notified of the availability of 1,500 job vacancies for Kuwaitis in the banking sector. "We are in real trouble in view of the increasing number of unemployed graduates and the lack of clear policies to enroll them in the labor market," he warned, noting that the total number of citizens registered at the Civil Service Commission (CSC) awaiting employment had dropped to 6,000. Furthermore, Saleh spoke about a plan to lay off 25,000 expats and replace them with citizens, without providing any more details. In addition, Saleh stressed that there are no Kuwaiti nurses because Shadadiya university does not have a nursing faculty.

Lawmakers have been pushing the government in recent years to create more jobs for national manpower in the private sector, which relies heavily on expatriate labor. Most government plans in this regard had failed to encourage citizens to leave the generally more rewarding and less demanding public sector job in favor of the commonly high demanding, less rewarding job in private companies. Expatriate make up more than 90 percent of the private sector's workforce - a figure lawmakers usually blame for the country's demographic imbalance and often demand reducing in order to rectify said imbalance while at the same time create more jobs for Kuwaiti jobseekers.

Meanwhile, national labor statistics issued by the manpower authority showed 14,697 citizens, including 55 percent with university degrees, were awaiting employment in the private sector in 2019 compared to 15,600 in 2018, said informed sources, noting that the total number of citizens seeking private sector employment had increased by 8 percent in 2019.

In other news, Minister of Education Saud Al-Harbi issued a ministerial decision authorizing assistant undersecretary for public education Osama Al-Sultan to be the ministry's acting undersecretary. Harbi also endorsed the results of the interviews conducted to select an administrative and technical affairs manager for Ahmadi educational zone and the appointment of Ameen Mohammed Fahd Tumeiheer in the position. Meanwhile, high-ranking educational sources said Harbi will continue reshuffling the ministry's top officials with the aim of injecting fresh blood and exchanging expertise.