3.3 Libya Context

Scope of fieldwork

Cities 14

Online survey respondents 502

Private sector businesses identified 2000+

Private sector businesses surveyed 343

In-depth interviews 103

Libya labor market assessment

3.3 Libya Context3

This section is a summary of the recent timeline, as the labor market that has now taken shape is due to the unique circumstances initiated over the past 10 years. An overview of the key insights and figures on how the market has formed over the past years is presented with the most noteworthy facts concerning public versus private sector differences in the labor market, age disparities, foreign labor participation and labor legislation.

3 Labor Market Dynamics in Libya, a World Bank study https://openknowledge. worldbank.org/bitstream/handle/10986/22015/9781464805660. pdf;jsessionid=6F33346D8B5D0AD4A127F91DDD813253?sequence=1

This does not suggest however a dismissal of what happened before 2011 in what has shaped the labor market to be what it is today. The deterioration of the market has come in the form of an exacerbation of pre-existing problems that had their genesis in the policies set by the regime previous to 2011. By far the most rapid period of change that has contributed to the transformation of the labor market over the past 10 years is the 2011 to 2013 period, which was followed by a smaller change between 2013 and 2015. During this period, the political situation further deteriorated against hopes of a rebound, and even got worse after 2015.

Prior to the political upheaval, the public sector dominated the labor market in the country. In 2015, the public sector employed 85% of the labor force, and 93% of women.

A core feature of today’s labor situation is the age disparity. A youth bulge is a defining feature of Libya’s demographic where 30% of the population was under 14 as of 2015. Now, with such a large proportion of youth entering the labor market and job security for over-45year-olds still very high, a tragic 49% youth unemployment rate has culminated as a result.

Another defining feature is Libya’s foreign labor participation. Over a 10-year period (2005 – 2015), the participation of foreign labor fell from 1.3 million (at the time, half the labor force) to a mere 0.3 million in 2015. The significance of this trend in relation to the youth is that the severe drop in foreign labor has not helped in alleviating youth unemployment to substitute the gap left by foreigners. A 2012 survey conducted across a large sample of managers found they plan to fill 6% growth with mostly foreign labor.4

It is important to note as an endnote to this description of the most recent period that has defined the labor market, that prior to the renewed conflict of 2014, a process to reform labor legislation, which started post upheaval as a priority, had been stalled. The amendment of labor laws is necessary in rectifying the hindrance of the private sector’s incentive to enter contractual forms of employment, which will be necessary in closing the gap between public and private sector’s proclivity to employ. This will prove pivotal in solving Libya’s labor market problems.

04

Methodology