ABU DHABI // Fifteen years after it was established, the UAE employment authority remains in the dark about jobless figures.
The National Human Resource Development and Employment Authority, Tanmia, was on Tuesday unable to provide the FNC with unemployment figures after a member’s request.
Abdullah Ghobash, Minister of State and head of Tanmia, said it was working on an electronic format to merge figures from local agencies, the pensions overseer and the Emirates ID Authority to formalise a number.
That figure would then be presented to the Government before being disclosed to the FNC.
“We hope we can provide a figure at the next session,” Mr Ghobash said.
Salem Al Ameri, from Abu Dhabi, asked how the authority was planning to solve the problem of unemployment if it had no idea how many people did not have jobs.
Mr Al Ameri said that the authority was established in November 1999.
Mr Ghobash said unemployment levels were on the rise because of an increasing number of university graduates.
The council put unemployment at 15 per cent in 2013 based on figures from the Ministry of Labour.
Mr Al Ameri remained unsatisfied even after a long explanation from Mohammed Al Marri, director general of Tanmia.
“What I heard does not convince me or those looking for work,” Mr Al Ameri said. “This is an old institute. If it was a couple of years old we could have possibly accepted your response.”
osalem@thenational.ae
