Around 25 percent of Syria's population is estimated to be economically active, creating a labor force of 3.75 million people in 1996. Fifty percent of the total workforce is employed in urban areas. Only 11 percent of the urban workforce is women, compared to around 22 percent in Syria's smaller towns and villages.¹⁸

The official unemployment rate that is published by the Syrian government it 8% as of 2000, but I think the real unemployment rate is much higher because in Syria there is not such a system to track the unemployment rate, so all numbers regarding the unemployment rate is an estimates.

Population: 17,155,814 (July 2002 est.)

Age Structure:   0-14 years 39.3% (male 3,467,267; female 3,264,639)

                         15-64 years 57.5% (male 5,052,841; female 4,817,662)

                         65 years and over 3.2% (male 267,803; female 285,602)

Population growth rate: 2.5% (2002 est)

Birth rate: 30.11 birth/1,000 population (2002 est)¹⁹

Average annual growth, 1996-2002:    Population  2.5%

                                                 Labor Force 4.0%

 Illiteracy (% of population age 15 and over):     

24% (based on the Syrian Arab Republic at a glance World Bank).   

76.1% in 2002 based on ICT at a glance for Syrian Arab Republic, world bank.

Although there is no formal numbers for the number of immigrants out of Syria, but this number is pretty high especially when it comes to computer science which can be linked to the fact the information technology in Syria is still in the early planning stage (brain drain). On the other hand I think all these highly educated people, especially in the information technology field, will have great opportunities when the Syrian plans for information technology are put in execution, which I think would lead to these brains immigrate back to Syria.

The Syrian Administration has taken the following action over the past few years: Training of qualified staff, who have acquired experience over a long course of instruction and training at home and abroad. Regular development of school programmers needed for schools and institutes in Damascus and Aleppo. Establishment of training centers in all administrative divisions or department of Syria in order to increase the number of specialized courses. Placing a great emphasis on the quality of courses. cooperation with universities and scientific research centers in organizing high-level specialized courses. Further efforts to implement the project for restructuring systems and application of a general quality standard.

The STE represent a major player in the Syrian information technology. Its employees structure by scientific qualifications are 13% engineers and university graduates, 22.5% Secondary school and Baccalaureate, 34.7% from Telecommunication school 29.7% others. Total numbers of employees 20,419. Workforce ration:12.6 per thousand subscribers. In 1999 they had 570 training courses and 14,342 students had attended these courses.²⁰

Military Service:

Due to severity of Syria conflict in the middle east over the years, all men over 18 years old are obligated to serve a mandatory service in the Syrian army. The service is 30 months long.