clear

Creating new perspectives since 2009

Algeria promises half a million new jobs for graduates

January 24, 2018 at 12:33 pm

People come together for protest in Algeria calling for better jobs for young people [Magharebia/Flickr]

The Algerian Minister for Labour, Employment and Social Security has revealed that more than 60 per cent of funding from the National Agency for Youth Employment Support and the National Unemployment Insurance Fund will be directed at creating half a million new jobs for graduates.

Speaking during a presentation Mourad Zamali explained to the Youth and Sports Committee the National People’s Assembly’s intentions “to increase the funding” to youth sectors and projects that will help young people in Algeria find work or develop the skillset to do so.

According to the Minister in 2017, 2,382,907 junior level students were helped into work and 2,946,544 were integrated within subsidised employment contracts.

Read: Algeria pro-government parties divided over Bouteflika succession

Zamali added that the total funds allocated to the vocational integration assistance system since the beginning of its implementation in June 2008 has amounted to $6 billion in expenditure.

He also stressed that his sector is preparing 500,000 students this year to be integrated into the beneficiary scheme with the Finance Act 2018 preparing a budget of nearly $1 billion to finance their vocational and employment integration as part of plans to improve the employability of young people.

The axing of thousands of jobs due to austerity measures and cut down of public spending has added to the woes of youth unemployment which has largely defined the post-independence generation. Attaining a diploma is no longer a guarantee of employment after university with over 32 per cent of graduates failing to find work.