Dirty Dinar

Here’s a sad story from the Arab Times:

Kuwait : A Kuwaiti woman recently visited the Al-Rai daily to tell about her financial difficulties and offered to sell the retina and cornea of one of her eyes and a kidney to help her pay her debts, reports Al-Rai daily. The woman, who is a widow, is a former employee of the Ministry of Health and is a mother of three children. It has been reported the woman owes KD 19,000 to a bank and KD 5,000 to a company.

It’s incredible that the woman is in such a desperate state as to want to give up body parts. It’s the first time I’ve heard of something of its kind in Kuwait. One of my first thoughts was why the woman wasn’t employed at the Ministry of Health anymore. Is she retired? Couldn’t she find another job?

I hope she finds a way to become debt-free without having to resort to such extreme measures.

Today’s Kuwait Times featured the article below. I didn’t realize that the number of women in the private sector was so low. Is it possible that only 5% of Kuwaiti women work in the private sector? I’m proud to be one of them but that percentage seems really low! I can’t help but think this is inaccurate. I know plenty of women who own their own businesses and work in the private sector.

KUWAIT: Kuwait is in the forefront of Arab countries in view of women’s participation in labor force by 42 per cent in line with 2006 statistics, an Arab economist said here yesterday.

The percentage of Kuwaiti women’s involvement in labor force is continuously on the increase, having recorded roughly 37 percent and 42 percent in 2003 and 2006 respectively, Riyad bin Jalili, an economist at the Arab Planning Institute (API), told a symposium on women and development in the Arab world.

Most working women, who are university graduates, are concentrated in the public sector by around 95 percent, he said. In spite of the high percentage of Kuwaiti women’s participation in labor force, leading state posts are often inaccessible to them, having stood up at merely six percent in 2004, Jalili added.

Kuwaiti working women’s diversified presence in the labor market is still meager if compared to other Arab countries, he said, arguing that the upward trend of women’s education has a limited impact on their diversified involvement in the labor market. They account for 45 percent in administrative professions, 24 percent in teaching and just four percent in medicine and science.

However, divorced women were more active than married ones in terms of economic activities in 2006, he said. Joblessness among Kuwaiti females and males hit 5.2 percent and 2.7 percent respectively in 2006, he added. — KUNA

Published Date: January 23, 2008 in the Kuwait Times

Here is another article from Kuwait Times, this one dealing with the number of Kuwaitis waiting to be employed by the government.

Every year unemployed people register to be placed in public sector jobs. If a person has not found a place after a period of six months from the registration date the government will pay out a monthly stipend until employment. Because of the high demand for government jobs, the Civil Service Commission encourages nationals to go into the private sector. However the longer vacation days and shorter work days are favored by many in their decision to apply for a public sector placement.

KUWAIT: The Chairman of the Civil Service Commission, Abdul Aziz Al-Zaben recently announced that Kuwaiti citizens registered on waiting lists for government employment totaled 20,225. He said that great efforts were being exerted to reduce the waiting time and expedite employment procedures.

He added that CSC’s main task was to provide job opportunities for Kuwaitis in both the government and private sectors in coordination with the manpower and the government restructuring program. He noted that the CSC worked hard on restructuring manpower in an attempt to combat unemployment among citizens as well as decrease demand on government jobs.

We do our best to encourage national labor to work for the private sector,” he said. He pointed out that such an aim could only be achieved through holding special training programs to qualify citizens to work in certain professions. He said that other activities would include surveying the labor market through coordination with the manpower and government restructuring program.

He added that the CSC also cooperates with various government establishments and sends reports directly to the Cabinet every six months if any violations were detected in any of the offices. When asked to name a government sector employing the largest number of Kuwaiti employees, he said it was the Ministry of Education.

Published Date: January 07, 2008