How to solve the global financial crisis is naturally a hot topic, sparking innumerable talks, conferences and forums. The Middle East is no exception. But while certain countries in the region like to boast that the crisis has largely passed them by, delegates at the International Labor Organization’s (ILO) Arab Employment Forum (AEF) in Beirut last month pointed out that the Middle East already had a chronic employment problem well before the financial crisis struck. Growth without jobs The forum therefore had a degree of urgency about it, given the challenges the region faces and the world’s highest unemployment rates set to rise further, from an average of 9.4 percent to as high as 11 percent this year, according to the ILO. Meanwhile, aggregate growth in the region is projected to drop 2 percent this year, rising to 4 percent in 2010. Yet growth, as Ahmad Majdalani, the Palestinian Authority’s
