In its latest GCC brief, NBK reports that the latest statistics from the Public Authority for Civil Information (PACI) show the total population of Kuwait stood at 3.44 million at the end of June 2009, more or less unchanged from the end of 2008.
More than 1.10 million, or 32 per cent, are Kuwaiti nationals while 2.34 million are expatriates. A 15,000 rise in the population of Kuwaitis was approximately offset by a 14,000 decline in the number of expatriates.
Although the latter surely reflects fallout from the economic crisis, the drop – at less than one per cent - was actually smaller than it might have been; the number of foreigners in Kuwait is still 50,000 or two per cent higher than it was two years earlier. The decline should also be seen in the context of the government’s Kuwaitisation policy and weaker activity in sectors employing large numbers of non-nationals.
Employment
While employment figures for Kuwaitis do not reflect the general slowdown in economic activity seen in the past 18 months, mainly due to the structure of the labour force and stability in public sector employment, the drop in expatriate employment does. Kuwait’s employment level stood at 2.04 million in June 2009, declining by 13,000 at an annualised rate of 2.6 per cent during the first half of 2009.
All of the fall in employment was attributable to the expatriate segment. Indeed, the number of employed Kuwaitis actually increased by 10,000 (three per cent). Similarly, the fall in total employment came from within the private sector. Employment in the public sector actually increased.
For the first time, newly employed Kuwaitis went overwhelmingly into the private sector (2/3 versus 1/3). The 2000 law calling for benefits in the private sector similar to those in the public sector certainly supported the private sector trend over the years.
The data also show a further rise in the share of Kuwaiti females in local employment. In the public sector, the female share of Kuwaiti employment has risen from 35 per cent in June 1999 to 43 per cent in June 2009. In the private sector, the shift has been even more remarkable: the female share has risen from 27 per cent to 48 per cent over the past ten years.
Meanwhile, the number of unemployed Kuwaitis reached 14,265 in June 2009, leaving the unemployment rate at 4.2 per cent of the Kuwaiti labour force. This is actually lower than the 4.9 per cent rate recorded at the end of 2008. Nevertheless, the government continues to be under pressure to provide new job opportunities for nationals.
In 2008, a new law was passed requiring higher quotas for the employment of nationals in various sectors beginning in 2009. The government has given the private sector until next year (the exact date is as yet unspecified) to meet the new quotas.
Distribution of employment by sector
More than 85 per cent of Kuwaitis are working in the service industry, mostly in the ‘community, social and personal services’ segment, which accounts for 243,000 Kuwaitis. (This segment incorporates most government administration activity.) The ‘financial & business services’ and ‘trade & restaurant’ sectors saw rapid growth of eight per cent and six per cent, respectively, in the number of employed nationals in 1H09, though in absolute terms the numbers remain small.
Some 638,000 expatriates (37 per cent) are working in the ‘community, social & personal services’ sectors. This segment includes household workers, drivers, and unskilled domestic labour. Over 300,000 expatriates are employed in ‘trade & restaurant services’, down by one per cent during 1H09.
The number of expatriates employed in the ‘financial & business services’ sector also declined by one per cent over the same period, and accounts for 90,000 non-Kuwaiti employees. Meanwhile, the construction sector employs nine per cent of all expatriate workers, but their numbers also fell by one per cent during 1H09.
Of course, most of the declines/weakness in jobs across sectors reflects the impact of the financial crisis on business confidence and employment in the first part of the year. One reason perhaps that construction employment did not fare worse in 1H09 is that construction activity is difficult to stop in mid-stream and we suspect that the sector will show further weakness in 2H09 and into next year.
Age, gender, and education levels
Just over 2.5 million, or 73 per cent, of Kuwait’s population were 20 years of age or above at the end of June 2009. Of these, 558,000 (22 per cent) are Kuwaiti nationals with the remaining two million being expatriates. In the total adult population, men outnumber women almost 2-to-1. This is due to the large gender discrepancy among adult non-Kuwaitis with 25 men for every 10 women. Among adult Kuwaitis, on the other hand, women outnumber men by a significant 13 per cent.
In the total population, a large majority of the 160,000 who cannot read/write are non-Kuwaitis; two-thirds of those are men. Nearly 1.7 million people among the adult population have not completed secondary or high school. This forms the majority of the adult population (73 per cent). Again, the non-Kuwaiti population is foremost in this segment with nearly 1.6 million without high school completion.
In the adult population, 689,000 or 27 per cent have a formal education, with 46 per cent of those having a diploma or professional degree. In the Kuwaiti segment, 292,000 have a formal education and more than half of those have a diploma or professional degree.
About 64 per cent of Kuwaitis with a university or professional education are Kuwaiti women, a fact that helps reduce gender discrimination in employment. This may also reflect the fact that Kuwaiti men may have more pressure placed upon them to become employed early which in turn leads them to forego a higher education.