A staggering 35 per cent of Lebanon’s youth are currently unemployed, said a report citing the country's industry minister.

The rising unemployment among Lebanese youths confirms the World Bank’s concern that the recession, political impasse and presence of over 1.3 million Syrian refugees in Lebanon have exacerbated the economic problems in the country, reported the Daily Star.
 
“These are great levels of unemployment,” Industry Minister Hussein Hajj Hasan told the audience that was gathered at the Gefinor Hotel in Clemeanceau where the National Council for Scientific Research (CNRS) hosted the “Seminar on Innovation in Lebanon’s Industrial Sector.”

Hajj Hasan pointed out that Lebanon imported $19 billion worth of products each year but only exported $4 billion, leaving the country with an annual trade deficit of $15 billion.

These policies enacted by the Lebanese government also lead to unemployment and brain drain, or mass emigration of the country’s youth, he noted.

“The true obstacles are the obstacles to progress that lie in the policies of the Lebanese state,” he added.