Overview of Major issues in the Development of National Human Resources in the Gulf

Abstract

The reliance of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) economies on foreign labour is well-established and apparently enduring. Three-quarters of the Gulf labour force or 5.1 million people are foreigners (Looney, 1991: 121). The average percentages of migrant labour in the total labour force in all GCC economies during the past two decades were estimated at: 46.5, 65.2, 70.0 and 67.7, in 1975, 1980, 1985 and 1990 respectively (ESCWA, 1992). There are several factors which contribute to the high dependency of the GCC economies on migrant labour: 1. The relatively young structure of the population of the GCC countries (48.7 per cent of the total national population was under 15 years of age in 1994-ESCWA, 1995) and the smallness of the population base in the region (in 1994 the total number of the national population of all GCC countries was 16,338,639 and the total population of the region, nationals and non-nationals, was 25,082,798 (ibid.). In addition to manpower shortages, Looney (1993: 37) argues that GCC countries suffer from manpower under-utilization and structural imbalances in the labour force.