178 self-immolations in Tunisia reflect despair of jobless Mideast youth
►http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/178-self-immolations-in-tunisia-reflect-despair-of-jobless-mideast-youth-including-vendor/2013/05/11/1e430bc0-ba61-11e2-b568-6917f6ac6d9d_print.html
In Tunisia, about 230,000 university graduates are unemployed, making up one-third of the jobless, according to the National Institute of Statistics. The Union of Unemployed University Graduates puts the actual number of jobless graduates closer to 350,000, saying many have stopped looking for work.
The few jobs available are awarded through nepotism and political connections, according to union member Soheil Idoudi, 32, who has an engineering degree but never worked in his field. His four college-educated siblings survive on odd jobs.
The problem is especially acute because in the Middle East, a job is often the first building block of adult life, as Adel soon found. Without a job, a young man cannot get married. And without marriage, a couple cannot live together.