Youth Unemployment in Palestine and the Role of SMEs in Addressing It

Unpublished working paper, prepared during postgraduate study at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies. The full text is in Arabic and available as a PDF from the top of this page.

Framing

Unemployment reflects an imbalance between labour supply and demand. Rates rise in developing economies when productive sectors cannot generate jobs at the required scale, pushing labour toward services as a last resort — yet services, mismatched to workers' qualifications, cannot absorb them.

The analysis applies to Palestine, but political factors carry the greatest weight in weakening the economic structure and the resources needed to create employment, after long years of blockade and political division.

Characteristics

• Severe concentration among young people aged 15–24, particularly university graduates
• Youth unemployment rose from 20% in 2007 to 44.7% in 2017, easing slightly to 42% in 2020
• The rate reached 73% among young women in the same age group in 2020
• High prevalence among holders of academic qualifications (intermediate diploma and above)

Focus

The paper examines the role of small and medium-sized enterprises as a route to addressing the problem, and the conditions required for that role to work.