QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – Khedr Muhammad has been to the city of Qamishli, northeast Syria, for two years, looking for an opportunity to work, amid the absence of good job opportunities and bad living conditions that Syria goes through.
Muhammad, a father of four children, complains about the recession of job market, saying, “We work one day and stay unemployed for ten days. We have not had chicken for about five months. Sometimes we sleep without having dinner because we are unemployed.”
The worker said, “We work from morning till night in digging, filling, carpentry or anything for 10,000 – 20,000 Syrian Pounds (SYP – less than $3).
Dozens of workers sit down streets on a daily basis, waiting for job opportunities. Some of them are forced to replace their professions with harder ones just to support their families.
Muhammad Abdullah, who used to work as a carpenter, is forced to work everything to support his family.
Abdullah told North Press, “I have been unemployed for a while. Previously, there was construction, but now there is no work and the chances that we get now are little. Some jobs do not suit me because I cannot do everything.”
The worker, a father of ten children, pointed out that the wages he gets are low, as he gets about 10,000 SYP (less than $2) which is not enough.
Like Qamishli, areas held by the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES) suffer from deteriorated economic conditions due to the collapse of the Syrian Pound, as the exchange rate of the Syrian Pound on the black market has reached 7.700 for each USD.
After more than a decade of the Syrian crisis, about 90% of Syrians have become under poverty line, Human Rights Watch (HRW) reported at early 2023.
The AANES raised in early April the salaries of its employees to be at least 520 SYP, which is threefold of salaries of the Syrian government.
Shero Sharo, co-chair of Workers Union, affiliated with the AANES, stressed that workers are oppressed in the private sector, so the union is trying to find a common factor with the private sector regarding to wages.
There are 42,000 workers who are registered in the Workers Union within the private and public sectors, according to the official.
He said that the unemployment is caused by the siege imposed on their areas and lack of companies and factors that adopt those workers.
He told North Press that the union is working on employing them via establishing projects in which they can find job opportunities.
Although there are not official statistics for the unemployed people in AANES-held areas, there are only less than 10% of unemployed people in the region, according to Sharo.
Unemployment is a thorny problem in the AANES-held areas due to its repercussions on the community.
The deteriorated bad conditions force a lot of workers to accept cheap jobs, as Muhammad al-Ahmad, from Qamishli, who finished the high school, was forced to be a daily worker because he could not find a substitute job.
Al-Ahamd, a father of three children, told North Press that the wages he get are insufficient for daily expenses.
“We sit here from morning till night [waiting for job opportunities]. There are no permanent jobs,” he added.
Despite establishing many projects by the AANES, a group of people stress that those projects are not enough to improve the living conditions.
Shokry Youssef, an economy analyst from Qamishli, pointed out that establishing companies and factors to hire those who are unemployed is the solution to eliminate the problem of unemployment.
Jamil Daher, deputy co-chair of Social Affairs and Labour Board in Jazira Region, also said that providing investing projects to offer as much as possible of job opportunities will be the solution to eliminate unemployment.