What about lack of or insufficient employment opportunities when there are more seekers than the number of jobs available in the market? What about political interference or nepotism in recruitment? What about lack of opportunities for self-employment? These are some of the problems in my region rather than the ones stated in the question.

What about lack of or insufficient employment opportunities when there are more seekers than the number of jobs available in the market? What about political interference or nepotism in recruitment? What about lack of opportunities for self-employment? These are some of the problems in my region rather than the ones stated in the question.

Prof Rao said "political interference or nepotism in recruitment".  I think it could be the reason number 1.  Lack of opportunities and capital for self-employment is next, and the third is being choosy to get a job that  is a genuine interest.

To overcome all the 3 reasons, many of my relatives, friends and students are working in UK, Australia, China and Singapore.  At times, it's necessary to be the foreign talent of other govts. (Daryn, it's tough to be a job creator... I have a related question.)

http://successmeasured.com/what-it-means-to-be-a-job-creator-and-how-you-can-become-one/

The employment barriers are:

1. Lacks basic and employability skills

2. Employer biases

3. Political interference

4. Pessimism

Elderly (above 60 years of age) employment  - The majority of older people want to work past state pension age, yet too many are faced with major barriers to working in later life

• ill-health
• caring responsibilities
• access to employment support
• availability of flexible working

http://resolutionfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Unfinished_Business_FINAL_3.pdf

There are many barriers which are the consequence of bad/criminal  privatisation in my country, very bad economic situation with no foreign investments, educational system does not follow market needs..."Serbia’s ongoing transition to a more open and dynamic market economy will continue to require a sustained commitment to deep institutional and structural reforms. Corruption remains widespread, and the judicial system’s lack of independence and transparency continues to undermine the rule of law and investors’ confidence in the economy..."

Some data follows.

http://www.heritage.org/index/country/serbia

Dear @Daryn, let me bring to your attention fine research paper from my region, regarding entrepreneurship barriers: Comparative Analysis of Entrepreneurship Barriers: Findings from Serbia and Montenegro.

http://www.inzeko.ktu.lt/index.php/EE/article/viewFile/3113/3614

Dear Colleagues,

Good Day

   What criteria are used to identify employment barriers?

The following criteria are used to identify employment barriers:

• Legality:   Does the Policy or practice conform to human rights legislation?
• Consistency:    Is the Policy or practice applied equitably?
• Adverse Impact:    Does the Policy or practice affect designated groups disproportionately?
• Validity:    Is the practice objective? Does it predict work performance? Does it measure what it is supposed to measure?
• Job Relatedness:    Is the Policy or practice based on bona fide occupational requirements?
• Business Necessity:    Is the Policy or practice necessary for the safe, efficient and reliable operation of the business?

Crisis, crisis and crisis.

1. Crisis of echonomical resources

2. Crisis of political values

3. Crisis of human qualities.

I will say the main barriers of  employment to include lack of equal employment are many -  

To be unreasonable, bias, favoritism, lack of ethics and morality, corruption, failure to see employment as part of rights of citizens as long as they are qualified and meet standards, hiring sport coaches with millions of dollars, the surprising and inappropriate amount of payments top leaders assign for themselves.  But I have reservations on the economy as one reason as most universities continue to build colossal stadiums, fancy buildings and beautifying their compounds at the expense of a lot of money. 

The top 3 barriers to employment in the Middle East: 1) The political-security system which intervenes especially in academic & other key appointments with an aim of giving the posts to loyal persons mainly. 2) Racism in its broad sense with consideration of  from which family or from which city or from which people the person, to be employed, comes. 3) Secrecy in some types of employments which involves tailoring jobs to certain persons & giving them these jobs without advertising or with advertisement (as a sudden short notice) which serves a pre-selected well-prepared person.  

That is one of the reasons why the Middle East is a region of failures. 

Some important barriers:

- Job expectations versus changed labour market requirements

- Lack of self confidence and low self esteem

- Stronger desire for local employment

- Fixed views on the jobs they could do and the skills they can offer

Dear Dr Nizar, Daryn and all, sometimes I wonder where are the places where academic, ethical, intelligent and diligent people will be appreciated.  I used to think that UK, US, Canada, Aust, NZ and Singapore, are more open that many other countries.  In countries where favoritism is being practiced, it's not the most deserving that get the jobs, and so generally the economies suffer, however much they may be blessed with natural resources.  So the ones who rule and decide are doing a dis-service to the countries that they profess to love.

" We further find that ethnic favoritism is a global rather than Sub-Saharan African phenomenon, which is present in poor as well as rich countries; that political institutions have a weak effect on ethnic favoritism; that ethnic favoritism is most prevalent in ethnically fractionalized and segregated countries with long established polities; and that ethnic favoritism does not contribute to sustainable development."

http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2573621

Hello All,

Thank you for the participation thus far. Just a quick comment:

In Canada, there is a big push in both the public and private sector to make workforces more representative of the national population, and to promote equality. Even so, being qualified is still the most important requirement. Without a doubt, nepotism and discrimination do exist and are barriers to employment.

I will follow up with further comments soon.

@Daryn, my supervisor, Dr Ang emigrated to Canada when her dad passed away.  Her dad was Prof Ang, who also lectured at Putra University (UPM) where I studied.  She is quite happy with the conditions in her new homeland.

http://www.upm.edu.my/

Canada has a good reputation for women's rights and cultural inclusion. Most recently, employment numbers in Canada favour women with the exception of entrepreneurship, engineering, some sciences and political representation. Men still occupy the higher earning positions, which I think will change as the baby boom generation retires. Barriers for women are coming down quite quickly...

Dear Dr. Miranda, Dear All,

Favoritism, within racist context, exists nearly everywhere but on different scales. Another important side of the story is that concerned with degree of frankness for there are places in which the people think of themselves as super races but they do not say that loudly & their actions are the indicators. They may propagate slogans of equal opportunities to all but, in practice, nepotism rules through & through. In my opinion, people brought up as "silent" racists do harm to themselves in the first place since scientific progress & employment's high performance are not monopoly of certain brains of specific ethnic groups.  

Thanks dear Dr Nizar.  I have learnt many things from the sharing of experienced people like you, Ljubomir, Eraldo and other RG friends.  This will put certain things into perspective: 'Favoritism, within racist context, exists nearly everywhere but on different scales. Another important side of the story is that concerned with degree of frankness for there are places in which the people think of themselves as super races but they do not say that loudly & their actions are the indicators...'  (It just shows that the powerful and literate are not exactly the same as the truly educated.)

https://www.researchgate.net/post/When_is_someone_considered_educated

Dear Colleagues,

Good Day,

These are the three main barriers that affect employment in IRAQ:

•  Administrative corruption,
• nepotism and clientelism,
• crushed infrastructure due to invasion of 2003.