Public jobs no solution to high MENA unemployment

High unemployment rates have grabbed the headlines in the MENA region, not only as a catalyst for the Arab Spring revolutions but also for prompting a backlash against expatriate workers in the region’s richer countries. The typical response by policymakers to high unemployment has been to create jobs in the public sector. But this has made fiscal positions worse. What’s more, higher levels of public sector employment don’t appear to have had much, if any, impact on unemployment.