By Mohamed Younis
After completing their education, many young people throughout the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region spend a considerable amount of time attaining the financial means to establish themselves as independent adults. The first hurdle is finding a quality job.
This period of “waithood” – as defined by Dhillon and Yousef in Generation in Waiting – is “characterized by the involuntary delay many young people in the region experience in forming a family and gaining social and economic independence from their parents or nuclear family. This leaves young people in the situation of waiting to become full adults — a state of waithood; struggling to resolve uncertainty on a number of interrelated fronts: attaining the right education, securing a quality job, and finding ways to afford the costs of family formation.”1
Quantifying the extent of waithood in Egypt — as well as in other countries globally that are experiencing a youth bulge — is complicated by the reality that employment, per se, does not exempt one from waithood. Even after finding a job, young workers must often wait years more to attain the perceived financial security to marry.
Because of the cultural norms of the region relative to gender roles in supporting a household, waithood is particularly difficult for young men.
Silatech demographic data for Egypt show that among men aged 15 to 22, 39 percent are working but only 5 percent are married. Low percentages of marriage among men persist through the 23 to 29 age bracket: 83 percent of men in this group are working, but fewer than half (41 percent) are married. Only by age 30 and older are most Egyptian men both working and married.
The lifestyle continuum is entirely different for Egyptian women. Between the ages of 15 and 22, 8 percent are employed while 23 percent are married, with hardly any overlap between the two. By ages 23 to 29, 17 percent are employed while 76 percent are married, still with little overlap. This pattern of most women being married but not working persists among those aged 30 and older.
Thus, while the majority of men do not reach the goal of employment until age 30 and older, most women marry at least half a decade earlier. Additionally, it is clear from these data that many young women marry older men, the latter being more capable than young men of providing for a family.
Beyond Jobs
For young Egyptians who are striving to make the transition from youth to adulthood, the most visible hurdle is finding gainful employment. When asked which of three issues would be most beneficial for the government to focus on in shortening the waithood period, more than four in five 15- to 29-year-olds — 84 percent — say quality jobs would have the greatest effect. By contrast, relatively few cite affordable and available housing (10 percent) or the cost of marriage (6 percent).
However, to enjoy the full benefits and responsibilities of adulthood requires more than a job; it requires a good job. According to their job satisfaction ratings, young Egyptian workers may not have yet fully realized this potential. Whereas 83 percent of workers aged 30 and older say they are satisfied with the work they do, the figure is 63 percent among those aged 15 to 29.
In the long term, shortening the waithood period in Egypt may also depend on fostering more societal appreciation for the contributions young people can make. At present, 34 percent of young Egyptians believe that leaders in their country make the most of the potential of young people.
And while the job market may be the key obstacle to leaving the nest, the problem of affording housing is not trivial. According to the Silatech Index, 34 percent of young Egyptians say they are satisfied with the availability of affordable housing in their area while 64 percent say they are dissatisfied.
By contrast, the educational system is largely seen in a positive light. Sixty-one percent of young Egyptians say they are satisfied with the educational system or schools where they live. Furthermore, 75 percent of young men and 68 percent of young women have completed their secondary education.
The Road Ahead
One of Egypt’s greatest challenges is to capitalize on the economic opportunity presented by its current youth bulge. The more that can be done to help quickly shepherd young high school or college graduates into the workforce, the more the nation’s economy should benefit. This is particularly the case when considering that the economic and social burdens of high unemployment among young Egyptians will go down as their employment rate goes up.
The focus for improving the status of young men should be on hastening the transition to more rewarding jobs or careers as well as addressing challenges surrounding affordable housing. The focus for young women may be on re-evaluating traditional roles and expectations. While marriage is clearly an alternate path to economic security for many young women, whether it is their preferred path — or the optimal path for such a well-educated segment of the population — is another question.
Encouraging more young female high school and college graduates to compete in the job market would seem to represent a healthy shift for Egyptian women and the country’s economic future.
Mohamed Younis is a senior analyst at Gallup and Silatech. This Silatech Index analysis is conducted by Gallup scientists and researchers pursuant to the Silatech-Gallup partnership. In addition to systematically measuring the perceptions of young people across the region on the challenges related to employment and entrepreneurship, Gallup analysts lead the effort in disseminating the findings of the Silatech Index to regional and global leaders and institutions engaged in addressing the challenges surrounding young people and employment in the region.
* Generation in Waiting: The Unfulfilled Promise of Young People in the Middle East. Navtej Dhillon, Tarik Yousef (Eds.). Brookings Institution Press, 2009 c. 280pp.
