KUWAIT
Kuwait’s Civil Service Commission (CSC) is planning to freeze 3,108 contracts for expatriates by 1 July as part of a general movement to “cleanse” Arab Public Services of foreign workers.
According to observers, the move would allow Ministries to recruit Kuwaiti nationals to replace the foreigners as part of the drive to reduce the number of expatriates and give Kuwaiti nationals more employment opportunities.
Several lawmakers have been pushing to reduce reliance on expatriates in a country where foreigners make up around 70 per cent of the total population of 4.5 million.
In November, the Public Service Commission told all Departments to submit their plans for replacing foreigners with Kuwaitis as part of a national drive to ensure the rate of unemployment among locals was at a minimum.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it needed some time to respond to the queries, while the Ministry of Labour said it was waiting for the formal paperwork.
However, the Ministry of Education, with its high number of foreign teachers and support staff, has yet to respond to the queries or to ask for more time.
The CSC said the number of job vacancies, based on the requests submitted to it by the different public entities and Departments, was 4,365 in 2018.
The figure meant that with the 3,108 jobs to be vacated by expatriates at the end of June, Kuwait would have more than 7,400 employment opportunities for Kuwaiti citizens.
In the first 10 days of this month, 3,001 Kuwaitis applied for public sector jobs, with women making up the majority, with 2,067 applications.
Most applications were for jobs in the Ministry of Education (2,558), while the lowest figures were one application for the Ministry of Defence and one for the Ministry of Oil.
Most Kuwaitis prefer Government jobs over private jobs to benefit from the security they offer as they cannot be fired except in extreme cases.
They are also attracted by less work pressure, shorter work hours and more holidays.
According to Government labour statistics released in 2016, up to 58 per cent of Kuwaitis refuse to work in the private sector and would rather wait for an opening in the public sector.
Kuwait City, 15 April 2018
