Unemployment Persistence, Risks of Skill Obsolescence, and Impacts on the Knowledge Economy in Arab Countries

Abstract

This chapter looks at the unemployment problem in Arab economies. It shows how unemployment has been persisting during the last years with the implied risks of knowledge obsolescence and other economic and social implications. Under the absence of policy actions that are likely to reduce the effects of knowledge obsolescence, Arab economies with high unemployment rates lose in terms of competitiveness and efficiency but also in the development of knowledge economy. Special training programs, besides more business oriented educational sessions, are likely to minimize the impacts of knowledge obsolescence. Descriptive statistics as well as regressions analyzes are used to show most of the dimensions of the unemployment problem in Arab economies.