Unemployed citizens in Abu Dhabi will no longer be able to rely on generous state benefits while they hold out for their dream jobs.
Jobless citizens, who can receive monthly unemployment payments starting at 6,000 dirhams ($1,634), will have to accept one of three job offers arranged by the state or risk losing the government’s financial support, The National newspaper reported.
The move is part of a wider effort by several Gulf governments, including Saudi Arabia, to wean citizens off of state aid and modernize their economies. Years of efforts to push citizens into the private sector have yet to change the dynamics of labor markets in much of the Gulf, including the U.A.E., of which Abu Dhabi is the richest and largest sheikhdom.
Many citizens often get government jobs, which pay better and have shorter hours than jobs in the private sector. Expatriates end up working in private-sector jobs with fewer benefits. Expats made up 81 percent of Abu Dhabi’s 2.9 million population in 2016, according to the latest government statistics.
“We don’t want a society that is dependent on social welfare,” Mugheer Al Khaili, the chairman of Abu Dhabi’s new Department of Community Development, told the newspaper. “We need to prepare our society for the post-oil era and give incentives to people to work hard.”
Around 39,000 people in Abu Dhabi received a total of 806 million dirhams ($219 million) in welfare payments in 2013, the latest year for which data was available, the National reported. It’s an increase from about 25,300 people and 665 million dirhams in 2011. Benefits start at about 6,000 dirhams for unmarried Emiratis, and married couples with children can get more. Expats aren’t eligible for unemployment benefits.
