Young, jobless and looking for trouble
Egypt is not the only country that is suffering from dangerous levels of youth unemployment. In fact, it is fairly typical
By Schumpeter
WE ARE all rightly fixated on the politics of what is going on in Egypt at the moment. But it is worth sparing a thought for the economics, too. If Russians in 1917 wanted "peace, bread and land" and ended up with totalitarianism, gulags and collective farms, Egyptians, particularly young Egyptians, want jobs.
Egypt's youth-unemployment rate is currently about 25%. That is clearly a depressing number, but even more depressing is that it is not out of line with rates across the region, and beyond. Lebanon's youth-unemployment rate is 21%, Tunisia's is 30% and, outside the Arab world, Britain's is 20% and Spain's is 40%.
Policymakers would be well advised to think about how we're going to promote job-intensive growth, even as they try to calculate the gigantic geopolitical consequences of the Egyptian eathquake.
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