Jordan's Queen Rania has warned that growing unemployment among Arab youth is a "ticking time bomb" that has to be defused before it causes unrest. According to the AP, Rania conveyed the number of unemployed people under 30 in the Middle East could rise from 15 million today to 100 million by 2020.
"With 60 per cent of our population under the age of 30 and one out of every four unemployed, we have to create five million jobs per year just to prevent a rise in unemployment,” the Queen said. "If we do not take any action by the year 2020, we could end up with 100 million young people unemployed in the Arab world," she added.
The region already has the highest rate of youth unemployment in the world, estimated at 25 percent.
At Sunday's gathering of Arab and international business leaders, Rania proposed making school curriculums more work relevant, encouraging innovative private-public employment partnerships and offering internship opportunities as ways to tackle the problem.
© 2008 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
