GAZA, (PIC)
In the Gaza Strip, unemployment is no longer a chronic economic issue; it has become an all-encompassing reality that haunts an entire generation of young people. This transformation did not happen in isolation it is the direct outcome of a relentless campaign of war and destruction whose chapters continue to unfold with devastating human consequences.
Recent estimates from the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) show that Gaza’s economy contracted by approximately 83% in 2024, with unemployment surging to around 80%, placing it among the highest rates globally. Almost the entire population now lives below the poverty line.
According to the World Bank, the ongoing conflict eliminated over 200,000 jobs within Gaza alone, while poverty has reached unprecedented levels that were already dire before hostilities escalated.
A lost generation in the labor market
For many young Gazans, the aspiration of employment has been shattered.
• Engineering graduate Mohammed, 27, describes how the firm he hoped to join after graduation no longer exists- its facilities were destroyed, leaving him and others stranded on the margins of an economy that once showed promise.
• Similarly, 24-year-old Islam, formerly employed in furniture and carpentry workshops, now lives without income as the sector collapsed under bombardment and blockade.
Their testimonies reflect more than just lost jobs they signal a collapse of hope itself.
A young mathematics graduate, Aya, explains that the bleakness of her employment prospects is secondary to the deeper despair of waiting for a future that appears indefinitely postponed.
From economic decline to systemic hardship
This situation goes beyond cyclical unemployment; it is the result of structural destruction:
• Around 70% of buildings and productive facilities including factories and workshops, were damaged or destroyed.
• The economic infrastructure that once supported livelihoods has been dismantled, making any rapid recovery unlikely.
• What once was unemployment has evolved into forced mass joblessness not due to a lack of skills, but a total absence of opportunity.
Experts note that these changes have reshaped Gaza’s social and economic landscape. Unemployment and poverty have coalesced into an inescapable norm. The youth who might have powered the region’s future instead confront daily subsistence and the profound loss of dignity and possibility.
Implications for Gaza’s next generation
The transformation of unemployment into systemic hardship carries profound implications:
• It deepens dependency on humanitarian aid for survival.
• It erodes the social fabric by removing pathways for economic participation.
• It risks creating a generation disconnected from opportunity, education, and stability.
Without meaningful structural change and sustained investment in economic recovery, Gaza’s youth its greatest asset, may be consigned to a future defined by poverty rather than potential.