Enfoque Medio Ambiente

As a result of the UAE’s small indigenous population, its total labour force has the GCC’s lowest percentage of nationals at 8.5 per cent (Tanmia 2005). Non- nationals comprise over 90 per cent of employment in the private sector and 60 per cent in the public sector workforce, and two thirds of them do not have a secondary education (Abdelkarim & Ibrahim 2001; Davidson 2005; Kapiszewski 2000; Tanmia 2005). With continued inflows, there appears no plateau for this expatriate influx (Abdelkarim 2001b).

The following discussion is structured by factors that form or impinge on the labour market, the dominant force of the non-nationals, growing national female participation, unemployment and barriers to Emiratisation and policies, practices and opinion to overcome these issues.

3.4.1 Antecedents of Labour Market

Factors that shaped the UAE workforce during the past two decades were an increasingly younger working age population, a growing reliance on skilled and unskilled non-national workforce and the demand for technological skills (Tanmia 2005). Consequently, the UAE labour force as a whole grew by an average of 9.7 per cent annually (from 1.3 million to nearly 2.1 million), while the UAE national labour force recorded an average growth rate of 8.2 per cent each year, 16.7 per cent female and 6.1 per cent males (Tanmia 2005). Due to social and economic pressures on Emirati women, the national female workforce participation increased nearly three times that of the UAE national male labour force over the period (Tanmia 2005). It is expected that female workforce participation will continue to grow significantly as

social barriers against females entering the labour force decrease and females fulfil their human capital potential of high performance in education, particularly at post- secondary levels (Abdelkarim 2001b; Freek 2004; Tanmia 2005).

Non-nationals dominate the workforce, but continue to rise by an average of 8.9 per cent annually. Non-national male participation increased by an average of 7.6 per cent and females by 10.2 per cent annually. Some 2.4 million non-nationals were employed in 2004, while the UAE labour force was a mere 225,000 (Tanmia 2004), thus the rate of growth of non-national employment continues to depress the overall share of the nationals in the 2.7 million workforce (Tanmia 2005). According to Abdelkarim (2001), if non-national and national labour forces growth follows past patterns, the predictions for the year 2015 would be 436,000 UAE nationals, and a further 4,800,000 non-nationals comprising the labour force.

3.4.2 Emergence of Women in Labour Force

UAE’s total female labour force for 2004 was 407,000, consisting of 345,000 non-national women (85.8%) and only 57,000 UAE national women (14.2%) (Tanmia 2005). Despite a reduced proportion of the population in 2003 due labour imports, there was a surge in the nationals’ female participation rate, increasing by 2 per cent in 2004 with a corresponding decline for the non-nationals. This surge continues from a decade earlier, with a national female participation rate of 4.5 per cent in 1995 to 12. 9 per cent in 2004, while national men’s participation rate increased slightly from 35.5 per cent in 1995 to 36.2 per cent in 2004 (not included unemployment) (Abdelkarim 2001b; Tanmia 2005). Freek (2004) argues that the increase in the national women’s rate is attributed to human capital factors that include economic necessity, increased participation in post-secondary education, and shifting social attitudes. In addition, a declining fertility rate and a trend towards women’s emancipation in the region are relevant to the increase (Tanmia 2005). However, several studies find a disconnect between the education qualifications of UAE females and those in demand in the job market (Abdelkarim & Ibrahim 2001; Tanmia 2005)

3.4.3 Labour Market by Emirate

National and non-national labour force numbers vary between urban and regional emirates. Table 3.7 illustrates the density and characteristics of the working population by emirate.

Table 3.7:UAE Labour Characteristics and Populations, by Emirate, 2004

Emirate UAE Nationals/ _Thousands Non-nationals/ Thousands Totals/ Thousands

Male Female Total Male Female Total Male Female Total

Abu Dhabi 71 26 97 878 85 963 949 111 1,060 Dubai 34 13 47 709 132 841 743 145 888 Sharjah 24 8 32 282 57 339 306 65 371 Ajman 12 2 14 93 42 135 105 44 149 Umm al Quwain 4 1 5 21 6 27 25 7 32 Ras al Khaimah 15 4 19 56 15 71 71 19 90 Fujairah 8 3 11 40 8 48 48 11 59 Total 168 57 225 2,079 345 2,424 2,247 402 2,649 Unemployed 15 14 29 48 5 53 63 19 82 UAE Population 464 442 906 2,465 949 3,414 2,929 1,391 4,320

Source: Tanmia estimates, Dubai Municipality and Ministry of Planning (2005) As an example of the urban environment, there were 13,000 national females in the Dubai labour market in 2004, or 9 per cent of the emirate’s female labour force. With the continuing building boom in the emirate, non-national males constituted 80 per cent of Dubai’s total labour force, symptomatic of their average 78 per cent for all UAE. Sharing the rapid development in the country, the three largest emirates, Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Sharjah accounted for over 80 per cent of the total UAE workforce. Estimated unemployment at 25 per cent was greatest among female nationals, and lowest (1%) amongst the transient female non-nationals. Male unemployment was estimated at 9 per cent and 2 per cent, respectively. These matters are discussed in the following section.

3.4.4 Unemployment

There are no accurate statistics for unemployed nationals in the UAE, a matter of considerable concern to the authorities as it impinges on dimensions for social capital and human capital status of nationals. As noted in Table 3.7 above, in 2004 there were

some 29,000 UAE nationals registered as unemployed with the Ministry of Planning and Tanmia (Elhage et al. 2005; Tanmia 2005); however, not all job seekers are registered with these two organisations and those registered may not be prepared to take work, but are seeking better opportunities. The majority of registrants are between 20-30 years of age, about half are female and over 85 per cent at least finished their schooling. In 2004, at Table 3.7, the unemployment rate for UAE nationals was 13 per cent, highest in the Emirate of Dubai, 26.8 per cent, with one third having tertiary qualifications. Whilst the UAE economy is developing rapidly with formation of organisational capital, Kapiszewski (2000) argues that the private sector needs to expand at a rate to absorb hundreds of thousands of jobs for young nationals leaving school over the decade.

Nationals are highly selective job-seekers, and once employed in the private sector, have a reputation for abandoning these jobs. They prefer working in the public sector, as discussed generally at Section 3.2.3. Abdelkarim (2001b) argues that this trait is caused by unfair competition from non-nationals in the private sector, although the private sector is much larger and employment is growing faster. Further, national job-seekers, as products of an inferior educational system not oriented toward private sector work, find that they lack the skills and knowledge readily available from imported labour, a denial of basic human capital principles. Finally, and most importantly, once nationals are employed, there is no career or educational path to develop the aspects of competent organisational capital resources. Where there is an option to buy in the required skill through non-national labour, there is no need to train and develop a local management structure, or implement career development programs (Al Dosary 2004).

The researcher argues that if these issues are not appropriately addressed, then the UAE risks its political and social cohesion (Al Dosary 2004).

3.4.5 Summary

The labour market in UAE largely comprises non-national males (78%), in fact, they represent nearly half (48%) UAE’s population in 2004. This places the government in a position of administering to fraction of the population, its citizens, who are a small as well as managing the regulations and services for a far larger number of transient workers. The challenges of nation building under these conditions

are enormous, as are the risks to the security and prosperity of Arab citizens, subjects of the Emirates. These challenges, epitomised by the need to maintain a stable social environment for UAE’s youth to acquire human capital and invest it in the private sector by replacing the current leadership in organisations, are explored in the next section.