Page 22 - U4SSC Factsheet, Bizerte, Tunisia, June 2020

Innovation and Employment

Category KPI Result Performance to Benchmark SDG

R&D Expenditure Not Reported
(relative to GDP)

Patents
(per 100 000 Not Reported
inhabitants)
Small and Medium-
Sized Enterprises 75.00 %
(SMEs)

Unemployment Rate 12.20 %

Youth Unemployment 23.30 %
Rate

Tourism Sector 1.21 %
Employment

ICT Sector Not Reported
Employment

While overall levels of unemployment in Bizerte remain lower than national levels, Bizerte's youth
unemployment rate is quite high. This, however, is emblematic of Tunisia in general – where, according
to the World Bank, young people without work who are no longer attending any school or training
programme spend, on average, more than three years searching before finding a job. This trend is
even more pronounced for female job seekers.

Optimizing innovation, enhancing employment and driving growth: Development of its ICT sector
will help mitigate, to an extent, the issue of youth unemployment in Bizerte. This will have further
positive impacts on the economic output and social cohesion, as young people are more likely to be
the first to embrace new tools and technologies, as well as be attracted to jobs related to technology
and innovation.

Bizerte should also orient any existing Active Labour Market Programmes (ALMPs), for example, towards
a more effective provision of employable ICT skills, in order to position its youth to take on such jobs
and perform them successfully. The key to unlocking the significant potential that exists within these
programmes will be to implement structured monitoring and evaluation systems, facilitate inter-agency
coordination, prioritize the recruitment and retention of young women, and expand the beneficiaries of
these programmes to include the vast number of unemployed youths who are not university graduates.

16 U4SSC Factsheet | Bizerte, Tunisia | June 2020