The Impact of the Financial Crises on the Lebanese Labor Force

The impact of the financial crisis that had overwhelmed the globe since 2008 with its impact on the developed and developing economies around the world has been the subject of concern to public and private leaders around the world.

On our local mini scale scene, the Lebanese government, and business leaders are at a loss    to the fact that the repercussion on our economy has been minimal.

The explanation to that is quite simple. Lebanon is not an industry based country that depends on exports to suffering foreign markets, Lebanon is a net importer of goods, and hence is at an advantage of importing cheaper goods . On the other hand, Lebanon is not a global financial center crowded with uncontrolled greedy brokers and fictitious investment opportunities. The monetary authorities in Lebanon had wisely barred the local banks from engaging in the overly attractive commercial papers that originated in the US financial centers.

Lebanon main assets are its educated, young men and women who are entrepreneurial, flexible, dynamic, and trilingual. Those skilled candidates are very much in demand in the Gulf countries by firms in media and promotion, construction, finance, sales and marketing, and general management.

To determine the impact of the financial crises on the Lebanese expatriates in the Gulf,  MPlus, had to start with a figure of the number of Lebanese expatriates working in the Gulf, in the absence of official statistics on this subject.  Based on its16 years experience in recruiting for the region, MPlus estimated the number of Lebanese expatriates working in the Gulf at about 300,000, with a marked majority working in KSA.

The following table reveals the estimated number of Lebanese who were rendered redundant as result of the crisis.

Our forecast of jobs lost by Lebanese working in the Gulf is estimated
according to the following table:

The loss in employment on the Gulf scene is being partially
compensated for by an increase in the demand for Lebanese
professionals by  some of the African countries, Syria, and the local
Lebanese market. The reason that some African countries, Syria and Lebanon were not affected by the crisis, are the following:

A)   All three economies are partially independent of the international economic community.

B)   Syria for one had been, for quite some time, on an economic boycott list by many of the countries that were hit by this crisis, and therefore did not have any dependency on such economics.

C)   Lebanon was fortunate to have had a wise monitory policy, implemented by the Central Bank of Lebanon, a few years ago, which barred Lebanese banks from being infected with the virus that hit monitory, and financial tools.

D)  Some of the African economies are mainly commodity producers, and even though the prices of commodities have dropped, the essential demand persisted because many of those commodities are soft commodities which are the staple food for the people of the whole world.

This is why we feel comfortable and confident, that the overhanging dangers of economic recession, which is engulfing developed and industrial nations will mildly affect the Lebanese economy and hence the leveled employment.

Sabbah Al Hajj, PhD, GM and Chairman MPlus Recruiters