Labor Demand in Tunisia: Size, Structure and Determinants

This paper explores the employment performance and capacities of the Tunisian private sector with a focus on the link between employment and investment and on the link between employment and exports. The analysis relies on the available INS statistics on the Tunisian industrial structure, mainly the data from the annual enterprise surveys and on the TLMPS 2014 data. The paper comprises four sections. First, the authors analyze the size and the structure of the Tunisian labor market. Second, the authors quantify the labor content of investments and exports and show that creating more jobs needs more effort by the private sector, which has to invest more, especially in new technologies, research and development, and in sectors that are intensively using skilled labor. The private sector also has to increase its share in the economy and to improve its competitiveness internationally. Third, they describe the intra- and inter- sectoral allocation of employment and variation of labor productivity. The purpose is to analyze the capacity of the economy to improve the quality of labor demand and absorb highly educated young people. Fourth, they analyze the link between firm size and labor demand and show the need for a new industrial structure allowing for a bigger share of larger and more dynamic enterprises which innovate more and can benefit from economies of scale and thereby create more and better jobs.