Job Creation through Infrastructure Investment in the Middle East and North Africa
In the next 10 years or so, the infrastructure sector has the potential to generate significant employment. This paper estimates annual job creation of about 2.0 million in direct jobs and 2.5 million in direct, indirect and induced infrastructure-...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Language: | English en_US |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2012
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2012/08/16592745/job-creation-through-infrastructure-investment-middle-east-north-africa http://hdl.handle.net/10986/11975 |
| Summary: | In the next 10 years or so, the
infrastructure sector has the potential to generate
significant employment. This paper estimates annual job
creation of about 2.0 million in direct jobs and 2.5 million
in direct, indirect and induced infrastructure-related jobs
just by meeting the infrastructure investment needs of about
6.9 percent of gross domestic product (about US$106 billion)
for the Middle East and North Africa region on average. The
breakdown in expected needs is 11 percent in developing oil
exporters, 6 percent in oil importing countries, and 5
percent in the Gulf Cooperation Council oil exporters. Needs
are particularly high in electricity and roads. While
important, infrastructure job creation will not resolve the
region's unemployment problem alone and its job
creation potential varies greatly across countries.
Moreover, the current ability to finance and hence meet the
infrastructure needs varies significantly across countries.
Oil importers are likely to fall short under business as
usual scenarios. In a region in which the public sector is
the main source of infrastructure financing, fiscal choices
will thus matter to job creation through infrastructure. But
there are more challenges, including the governance of job
creation, and the proper targeting and costing of subsidies
for job creation and the (re)training programs needed.
Managing expectations will also matter, as infrastructure
jobs will help but will not solve the region's
unemployment and underemployment problems. |
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