The next decade will be a period of employment growth for the Arab world, according to a meeting of regional leaders.

The Economic Development Council met yesterday (March 7th) at the 37th Arab Labour Conference (ALO) to discuss the measures needed to boost labor market participation in the Middle East and North Africa by 2020.

During the opening session, Al Tayeb Louh, chairman of the ALO, claimed that the next ten years will see the number of jobseekers in the Arab world decline substantially.

This view was supported by Ahmed Luqman, director-general of the ALO, who cited the example of Bahrain as a leading country in the region in terms of unemployment.

The kingdom has reduced the number of jobseekers from 16 per cent a few years ago to four per cent today.

Last month, the United Arab Emirates' minister of labor, Saqr Ghobash, claimed that countries in the Gulf must change their development patterns if they are to continue to provide employment for their own people.