IMF Says One-Million Jobs Gap in GCC Risks More Unemployment

One million nationals of oil-rich Gulf Arab states may be jobless or seek careers in a bloated public sector by 2018 unless measures are taken to create more private-sector employment, the International Monetary Fund said.

Private companies in the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council are expected to generate 600,000 jobs, one million less than the number of citizens likely to come into the labor market, Masood Ahmed, head of the Middle East and Central Asia department at the IMF, told a news conference in Dubai today.