Feature: Thousands of unemployed Syrians throng job fair in Damascus

With the tough situation in Syria and the high rate of unemployment, thousands of fresh graduates and unemployed Syrians submitted their resumes at a job fair opened in the capital Damascus with the aim of offering opportunities to the youth.

As many as 4,000 young Syrians took part in the two-day job fair, which aimed at offering almost 1,000 opportunities, including jobs, training and even volunteer work.

The event was organized by the Syrian Expertise NGO, which worked to group over 40 companies, including banks and volunteer organizations, at one venue in the Umayyad Hotel in the heart of the capital Damascus to ease the search-for-job process for thousands of Syrians.

"The initiative is carried out by the Syrian Expertise group and the job fair today aims at offering opportunities to the Syrian youth to either find a job, a volunteer work or training. We have many companies and banks which are offering valuable opportunities to the Syrian youths," Nirmin Ammar, the media spokesman of the job fair initiative, told Xinhua on Monday.

For his part, Ala'a al-Aidi, the head of the Syrian Expertise group, said his NGO group was inspired to work on the job fair by the huge demand on opportunities.

"Due to the people's need for opportunities, whether job or education, we have created a space today at the Umayyad Hotel to group a number of companies and institutions that could offer those opportunities such as jobs, training, or volunteering," he said.

Fayez Salahuddien, a computer science graduate, said he had been searching for job for a long time in vain, noting that he and people of his age should not surrender and should keep looking for jobs.

"We have heard about the initiative and I thought I must submit my resume at several companies which are participating in this fair. I came and submitted my resume to over 15 companies and I hope I could get a job from this fair," he said.

"Of course, the crisis has affected everyone. But us, the sons of this country, should not surrender to the circumstances. We must have hope and serve our country and never surrender," he said.

Muhammad Aghi, a marketing graduate, also recounted how he had no luck finding a job during his university time or after his graduation, noting that the job fair was a good idea to facilitate the process of applying for jobs.

"I have previously applied for jobs, but I was unlucky. I have heard from my friends about the initiative and I came here to submit my resume. I got positive signals from the companies which I applied to and I am encouraged more than ever."

Even those who haven't graduated yet showed up at the job fair with the aim of finding companies that could offer them training and experience.

Layla Fahmi, engineering student, was one of them and she said money wasn't her priority, but obtaining experience.

"I have submitted my resume but I don't care about the money because I am looking forward to obtaining experience in the field of my education. In spite of what is happening in Syria, a large segment of the Syrian youth want to work and build their country. We will not surrender to the circumstances and we want to soar higher by God's will."

Rasha Maqsud, an insurance company HR staffer, said the turnout at the fair was extremely high, noting that her company alone received over 3,000 resumes since Sunday.

"As an insurance company, we want to provide job opportunities through this fair to the Syrian youth to facilitate the search-for-job process. We have plenty of vacancies and we would like to benefit from the energy of the young people in the work field."

The four-year-old Syrian crisis has reverberated negatively on all aspects of life, most importantly the economic one.

Shadi al-Ahmad, an economic expert, told Xinhua that the unemployment rate in the war-torn country reached 36 percent according to the official estimates, adding that inflation reached 147 percent in 2014.

He said the real unemployment rate might be higher because the official rate doesn't include people under 18 or over 60. Other unofficial estimates place the unemployment rate at over 50 percent. Endit