The Arab Region Loses 6 Million Jobs Due to "Corona"

  • Arab Countries
  • 8 September 2020
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The Arab Monetary Fund has issued a study on “assessing job losses due to the Corona pandemic and estimating the minimum required for economic growth to create jobs in Arab labor markets.”

The Arab Monetary Fund expected the loss of about 6 million jobs in the Arab region in 2020, which represents an increase in the unemployment rate by at least four percentage points at the level of Arab countries as a group compared to the levels recorded before the pandemic. In addition to the above, the study estimated the minimum required economic growth that would enable the creation of new jobs sufficient to reduce the unemployment rate in the Arab region by about 4 percent.

The study adopted a standard model to estimate the impact of the Coronavirus pandemic on unemployment rates in a number of Arab countries, and revealed the asymmetry of the impact of business cycles on unemployment, as it showed a greater impact of recessions on Arab labor markets compared to periods of expansion.

Source (Al Khaleej Newspaper-UAE, Edited)