By Ghada Barsoun
CAIRO: I passed by a governmental agency building a couple of days after the Tahrir Square demonstrators had mostly gone home. There were two groups amassed in front of this agency: one consisting of job applicants responding to an announcement by the Minister of Manpower regarding job vacancies for young graduates in the government; and another group of temporary workers in the same agency, picketing in demand of permanent contracts and calling for pay equity.
The two groups represent two facts we know most about youth employment in Egypt. First, that the majority of youth want jobs in the government. Asked in a national survey about their sector of preference, 72 percent noted that working for the government is better than working for the private sector. Young people from poorer households were more likely to prefer a government job.
I interviewed many young people to ask about the reason for this preference, they highlighted “aman” (job security) and “daman” (a guaranteed job) as valorized qualities in a government/public sector job that are not available elsewhere. In order to understand this quest for security, we need to look at the kind of jobs young people, particularly those from poorer households, find in the private sector.
To use the term of the World Bank, theirs are “bad” jobs. They are mostly low-skill, low-pay jobs that are, more seriously, offered with no written work contract. Without a work contract, another basic right is denied, that is the ability to contribute to pension schemes.
Young people also refer to disrespectful treatment by employers in the private sector invoking images of slavery — “as if they have bought you.” When I interviewed a group of working young women in the private sector in Minya about their job aspirations in 2009, they told me “in fatak el miri, itmaragh fi toraboh” (if you miss a government job, cling to the dust that remains) — a saying once eternalized in old black-and-while Egyptian movies.
Government jobs, though not expected to pay much more than the private sector, offer a more democratized work environment, where a supervisor is another government employees, and are expected to offer stability and the possibility to regularly contribute to a pension scheme.
This brings us to the second group on the scene in front of the government agency: the temporary workers. The government has been selling the dream of a government job without the real benefits that these young people are after. Responding to structural adjustment policies, official hiring in the government has been relatively stalled. However, a backdoor to the government remained wide open, temporary hires.
Many of these “temporary” work contracts last for years. The compensation packages for these employees varies in different governmental agencies, however what remains constant is that these jobs do not offer the stability and pension schemes these employees have bargained for.
Among the demands of these workers is job equity, not only with same-level employees who have permanent contracts, but with top management. Many demonstrators among government and public sector employees picket while holding payroll-like lists of top management in their organizations that show six-digit salaries. Although these payroll-like lists might not be true, if anything, the situation confirms a serious lack of transparency in the government pay system.
The scene in front of the government agency reminds us of the major ailments of the labor market in Egypt. First, its private sector provides “bad” jobs that offer little job stability, skill building or income security. It therefore pushes young people to continue to seek jobs in the public sector and the government. Second, the public sector/government also provides “bad” jobs to young people while dangling the possibility of better prospects for those who can wait for an undetermined period of time until they receive permanent contracts. Third, that there is a serious lack of transparency and good governance in the public sector.
The solution, it seems to me, starts with reforming jobs in the private sector through advocacy before regulations. Employers in the private sector need to understand the value of providing respect, dignity and potentials for growth — not just subsistence income. Until we reach that, masses of young people will continue to crowd in front of public sector agencies in pursuit of a chimera.
Ghada Barsoum, PhD Assistant Professor, Public Policy and Administration Department, School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, The American University in Cairo.
