Good piece in The Washington Post about how efforts to nationalize labor in the Gulf States, and beyond, run into difficulties. The article points out that young nationals are looking for jobs, but don’t want private sector jobs, instead preferring government jobs. Employers are hesitant to hire locals because of the higher costs and lower quality they associate with them. Ahmed Al-Omran, Saudi Jeans, makes an appearance.

I was a bit surprised to see that Syrian youths are now avoiding private sector jobs. It certainly wasn’t always that way as Syrians tended to be quite entrepreneurial and willing to take jobs that they could later develop into their own businesses.

Gulf States Try to Steer Jobs to Citizens
Ellen Knickmeyer

MUSCAT, Oman — Coffee shop manager Lalit Jadeja groaned as white-robed Omani officials swooped down on his Filipina cashier at one of the largest shopping malls in this Persian Gulf kingdom. It was the Omanization squad.

Why, the officials demanded, was a foreigner instead of an Omani citizen working the cash register?

The officials were enforcers of Oman’s campaign to put its young citizens in jobs occupied mostly by cheaper foreign workers. Similar programs, costing millions of dollars, are being tested across the oil-rich Gulf region, where many are concerned that frustrated young people are susceptible to radical ideology.

But economists and other analysts say the programs have made little difference so far. In some cases, as in hiring quotas for citizens, government efforts have angered employers who say the campaigns have fostered a sense of job entitlement among local young people.
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