Download or read book Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) - Labor Market Reforms to Boost Employment and Productivity in the GCC written by International Monetary Fund and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 2013-11-13 with total page 38 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The GCC growth model has delivered substantial improvements in living standards over several decades. Access to foreign labor has supported rapid growth in the non-oil sector and price stability in the region. It has also resulted in positive spillovers to the migrant-sending countries through large remittance flows. At the same time, governments have increased public-sector employment and have helped raise standards of living. However, the growth model has involved costs: the public-sector wage bill is relatively high, there is limited employment of nationals in the private sector, labor productivity has declined or stagnated, and there is limited progress on economic diversification