The number of job seekers in the Arab world is projected to soar to 95 million by 2030 from the current 55 million, said a report.

Fighting unemployment, development of human capital and preparing administrative leaders have become the main challenge for Arab countries and governments, said the Gulf News report quoting Dr Ali Mohammed Al Khoury, director general of the Emirates Identity Authority.

Dr Al Khoury pointed out that the UAE is in a leading position in terms of adopting and launching initiatives aimed at reducing unemployment in a paper entitled ‘Human Capital Development in the Arab World,’ that he presented at the Government Human Resources Summit 2013 held recently in Abu Dhabi.

He urged for consistent focus on aligning educational outcomes with job market requirements and the knowledge economy enablers. This should be done in parallel to the provision of incentives that help motivate citizens to work in the private sector, it said.

The common challenges facing the employment market in the region include the lack of optimisation of the national workforce, preference of government jobs, brain drain and the rise in unemployment rates among the youths, it added.