Introduction

As reported by Oman’s National Centre for Information and Statistics (NCIS) as of 2014- 2015, only 14% of Omanis worked in private companies compared to a rate of 84.5% in government employment. In a NCIS April 2016 study, “The Youth in Lines,” numbers in the 15-29 age group – the prime group for first time and/or professional workers, now constitute 30% of the total Omani population. With young males outpacing females at 51% to 49%, the total Omani population as of spring 2016 sat at 2.4 million representing a 3.73% increase largely due to the expanding youth group (NCIS, March 2016). However, the employment prospects for young Omanis, especially males, in both the government as well as private job sectors, remains a troubling one.

In a 2014 report on the Omani labor market, Crystal A. Ennis and Ra’id Z. al-Jamali also note that based a 3.9 per cent annual population growth rate, Oman had climbed into the top five countries globally in terms of population increase by 2012 (Ennis and al-Jamali, Chatham House, 2014). Along with sizable annual indigenous population growth, expat levels also rose at the astonishing rate of 17.7 percent in 2012 alone, placing Oman at the top of the World Bank’s ranking of imported labor markets. The drive for oil extraction and exports, which climbed since 2000 to 80% of Oman’s GDP, certainly facilitated a rapid expansion of corporate-based job. However, foreign workers occupy almost 60% of such employment vs. only a third of Omanis. Also, Omani unemployment rates overall has persisted at around 15 per cent with youth unemployment at above 30 per cent (Buckley, Graeme and Rynhart, Gary, 2011). As a result, the negative nature of the Omani indigenous labor market demonstrates that “the livelihood of a majority of nationals is intricately tied to the state, notwithstanding the welfare benefits that extend to the total national population” (Ennis and al-Jamali, Chatham House, 2014).

This evidence also counters the assertion by Steffan Hertog in his 2012 work, “A Comparative assessment of labor market nationalization policies in the GCC” that Oman’s “use of market-based incentives make national employment more attractive,” when compared with its GCC neighbors (Hertog, 2012). However, the NCIS 2015-2016 figures reveal that the large imbalance between public and private employment opportunity has not significantly been reduced despite such policies and efforts by Oman’s Sultanate government. At the heart of a market-base strategy sits two initiatives -100% “Omanization” of the workforce employed in the nation’s private sector and deliberate diversification of Oman’s corporate sector beyond oil and gas production. Presumably, these two inter-twined initiatives should favor greater opportunity and absorption of young Omanis into an expanded, innovative private business-driven economy.