TRIPOLI, May 26 (Xinhua) -- Libya's labor minister said Friday that the country's public sector is overcrowded with 1.8 million employees, calling for more cooperation with the private sectors to create jobs.
"The employment of the public sector is overwhelmed, amounting to nearly 1.8 million. We are striving to partner with the private sector to reduce the burden on the state budget," Al-Mehdi Al-Amin, Labor Minister of the UN-backed government, told Xinhua here.
Earlier in May, the Libyan government announced a general budget of 31 billion U.S. dollars for 2018.
However, the public sector is expected to take more than 17 billion dollars, over half of the general budget, to pay employees' salaries, according to data from the labor ministry.
"There is a major imbalance in the recruitment policy. We are in close contact with the parliament and the Higher Council of State to introduce necessary legislation to attract private companies to ease this burden and recruit young people," the minister said.
Libya's unemployment rate is currently 5.5 percent, according to the statistics from the ministry.
The north African country has been plagued by economic woes due to escalating violence and political division following the 2011 uprising that toppled former leader Muammar Gaddafi.
Furthermore, its economy mostly relies on oil, which is prone to fluctuations in global prices.
