Bloomberg News Highlights EFE’s Job Placement Success in Sobering Article on Youth Joblessness and Unrest

On June 24th, Bloomberg News highlighted EFE’s high job placement rates in an article about youth unemployment and civil unrest in Egypt.

“Egypt’s Unemployed Target Mursi After Toppling Mubarak: Jobs” discussed the impact of Egypt’s record-high youth unemployment rate: 8 out of 10 Egyptians without jobs are under the age of 30. Among those, a quarter have university degrees, or higher.

EFE was cited as an organizing working to prepare what the author calls an “untrained” labor force.

“Education for Employment, a Washington-based nonprofit organization, offers training for young graduates from low-income backgrounds in the Arab world. It then seeks to find them jobs in industries such as retail, hospitality and banking, according to Chief Executive Officer Jamie McAuliffe…The placement rate -- about 3,000 people found jobs in the Middle East between 2006 and 2012 -- is almost 80 percent, he said.”

Bloomberg notes that creating jobs in the private sector is imperative for MENA countries, especially as budget deficits continue to rise. The article quotes a former Egyptian Finance Minister as saying that the public sector has been the main source of jobs historically in the region.