CAIRO - Mohamed Samir, a 28-year-old architect, spent five years after graduating trying to find a job that suited what he'd studied; he searched enthusiastically here and there for work, but gradually his enthusiasm gave way to depression. Mohamed worked very hard at school to get high enough marks to study engineering. At university, he also studied very hard, for the sake of his career. But, when he graduated, he could not find a job. “I dreamt of doing many things after graduating, but all that has gone now. I didn't realise how many unemployed people there were in Egypt. Little did I imagine that I would one day join their ranks," Mohamed, who graduated in 2007, said sadly. In that year, unemployment in Egypt stood at 8.3 per cent, according to the National Economic Research Centre; in the second quarter of 2011 it had risen to 11.8 per cent, according to the Central Agency for Public Mobilisation and Statistics (CAPMAS). Again unemployment shot up to 13.2 per cent in the first quarter of 2013 from 13 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2012, CAPMAS reported two weeks ago. Mohamed, who is now working as a salesman for an electronics company, says that, after the revolution, he hoped that many of Egypt's problems, topped by unemployment, would be solved. “When the Egyptians toppled the former regime, I automatically found myself regaining hope of a better future – not only for me but for all the suffering Egyptians. “I remained hopeful until the end of 2012, six months after Mohamed Morsi was elected President. But then I realised that nothing has changed," he adds sadly. Mohamed says that it is really very hard to have graduated several years ago and to still be unable to afford to provide for his modest needs, having constantly to rely on his father for money. “It's really very hurtful to feel that I can't be responsible for myself, although I'm a well-grown man. “I only agreed to start working as a salesman three months ago, because I need to feel that I'm doing something useful for society," Mohamed stresses, expressing his anger at the Government's inability to create enough jobs for young people. He says that unemployment causes several problems, one of them being that many men and women cannot afford to get married. A lot of young men have not got enough money to tie the knot; they cannot be responsible for a wife and children, unless they have a steady job with a reasonable salary. Calls have been repeatedly made to successive governments to give priority to the problem of unemployment. Experts say that the younger generation have great potential and energy, but these things need to be properly channelled. If this happens, they can achieve great things. Many young people have launched online campaigns on Facebook, trying to convey their message to the Government. These campaigns are designed to draw the Government's attention to the need to provide young people with good jobs and give financial aid to the unemployed, until the Government finds them jobs and reduces the retirement age, in order to give the younger generation more opportunities. One of these campaigns has written on its wall: “When fresh graduates apply for a job vacancy, they tell them that they need experience! How can a fresh graduate have experience without putting into practice what he has studied? “This means that young people will never get the chance to acquire experience in any field. Is this the kind of development and improvement that the concerned officials want for Egypt's youth?" In a recent conference entitled ‘NGOs Confronting the Problems facing Unemployed Arab Families', unemployment was highlighted as one of the major problems in the Arab world. Ali Lelah, a sociologist, said in the same conference that, in Arab families, 15.6 per cent of males and 22.06 per cent of females are unemployed, according to a study that covered 11 Arab countries, including Egypt, Morocco, Lebanon, Palestine and others.
