IPT's "Hiring Lebanese" initiative was featured in the April 2020 issue of the renown economic magazine, Le Commerce Du Levant. As part of a comprehensive study done on the new realities of unemployment in Lebanon, the article goes over the effect of the substitution of foreign workers with locals.
The "Hiring Lebanese" initiative received very positive feedback from the community, encouraging over 1,500 Lebanese citizens from across Lebanon to apply. Amidst the deteriorating economic conditions in the country, this initiative sought to provide job opportunities in a time of rising unemployment.
While it was a bold move, it was the first step in removing stigmas linked to specific daily, manual jobs and changed the perception about gainful employment in Lebanon. The article notes that foreign workers constituted 21% of employment in Lebanon in March 2019, a category hit hardly by restrictions on dollars and the devaluation of the currency in parallel markets.
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