Years of economic collapse have pushed many young Lebanese into unemployment and precarious work, while the 2026 war has further eroded opportunities.
By Sally Abou AlJoud
BEIRUT – Fadi Arnaout sits on a plastic chair outside a modest roadside café in Beirut, a cigarette balanced between his fingers and a small cup of coffee cooling in front of him.
Around him, dozens of young men occupy the same stretch of pavement – some talking, others scrolling through their phones, passing time.
The 26-year-old has a degree in accounting and expected his education to lead him into a stable career. Instead, for more than a year, his mornings have followed the same routine of coffee, cigarettes and hours spent looking for opportunities that he says rarely materialize.
Arnaout’s experience reflects a labor market that has deteriorated over years of financial collapse, political instability and repeated conflict, leaving young workers with fewer jobs and lower purchasing power.
An International Labour Organization survey found that 33% of private-sector workers who had been employed before the war started in March 2026 were no longer working by May.
The latest nationally representative labor force survey, conducted by Lebanon’s Central Administration of Statistics with the ILO in early 2022, found youth unemployment had reached 47.8%, nearly double the 2018-19 rate. No newer national labor force survey has been published since then.
While unemployment remains high, labor experts say the official rate does not capture the full extent of the crisis because it excludes many people who have stopped looking for work due to few opportunities, as well as those working fewer hours or in jobs below their skills.
Survival employment
When Lebanon’s financial system began collapsing in 2019, Arnaout saw what appeared to be an opportunity.
As the Lebanese pound rapidly lost value against the dollar, currency exchange became one of the few sectors where people could make quick money. Informal exchange networks expanded, and many Lebanese began buying and selling dollars as businesses and individuals struggled to protect their savings from inflation.
For Arnaout, accounting seemed like the perfect background.
“I thought I was prepared. Many of my friends, who picked it up at the time, were making big profits,” he said. “I understood numbers. I thought this would become something.”
At the height of the crisis, exchange shops and informal traders benefited from the huge gap between the official exchange rate and the market rate. The Lebanese pound moved from a fixed rate of around 1,507.5 pounds per dollar and depreciated fast.
Currency trading became a survival strategy for many Lebanese who had lost formal employment or whose salaries had become nearly worthless.
But after years of currency volatility, Lebanon moved toward a more unified exchange-rate system. In February 2024, Banque du Liban adopted a new official exchange rate of 89,500 Lebanese pounds per dollar, replacing the old official rate, while the market rate largely stabilized around that level.
The stabilization did not mean Lebanon’s economic crisis was solved. But the days of extreme daily currency swings, when people could profit from rapid fluctuations, became less common.
Arnaout was left with an underpaying part-time job at OMT, a Lebanese money transfer company, where currency exchange was part of the business. But as demand declined, he was eventually let go.
At 29, Alex Mhanna is also confronting a job market that offers few options for young Lebanese professionals like him.
Mhanna, who studied graphic design, has been unemployed for nearly six months. He has picked up occasional freelance work, but says “it has barely been enough to make ends meet.”
He is considering becoming a delivery driver for Toters, a food and grocery delivery platform. He said many of his friends were increasingly being pushed into informal or low-skilled work.
The idea came to him after a Toters driver delivered his food one day, Mhanna asked him about the job. The driver told him the company was always hiring and that he could make around $27 a day, depending on the number of deliveries, excluding customer tips.
Mhanna would need to use his own motorcycle and would have to cover the fuel himself. After doing his own calculations, he estimates he could make about $500 a month before expenses, potentially more if he worked more hours.
“And if the motorcycle breaks down, I would have to pay for repairs while not making money on those days,” he added.
Still, Mhanna says he is considering it if it remains his only option.
The economy was recovering, then another war crushed hopes
Yasmine*, 31, had spent years saving to build a business of her own in Beirut’s southern suburbs, importing clothes and shoes from China, Turkey and other countries.
“I worked hard to establish the shop, gradually building up my stock,” she said.
An airstrike in the 2024 Hezbollah-Israel war destroyed the depot, she said. The shop itself was then partially damaged during the latest war.
The World Bank said Lebanon showed signs of a modest economic recovery in 2025, with activity accelerating in the second half of the year. But the recovery remained fragile, and the World Bank warned the 2026 conflict would weigh heavily on economic activity.
For more than a year, Yasmine has been without a regular job. With no shop or depot, she said she now occasionally imports items from Shein and sells them online to customers in Lebanon.
“I feel hopeless,” she said. “When the war ended in 2024, I was relieved. I thought this was a chance to perhaps rebuild and move on with life, but the 2026 war happened and I lost all hope in Lebanon.”
There is no comprehensive nationwide damage assessment yet for Lebanon’s 2026 war, but Finance Minister Yassine Jaber has estimated that the conflict could shrink the economy by 7% to 10% in 2026.
The emerging damage from the 2026 war damage comes on top of the destruction caused by the previous war. A World Bank assessment published in March 2025 estimated that the 2023–24 conflict had caused $14 billion in economic costs and left Lebanon with $11 billion in recovery and reconstruction needs.
The latest conflict reduced average labor income by 40.4% when both job losses and declining earnings were taken into account, according to the ILO. Among workers who found new jobs, average earnings were 30.7% lower than before the conflict.
Even among those who are employed, the ILO estimates that 44% of Lebanon’s labor force works informally without contracts or social protection.
For workers already relying on informal or precarious jobs, the new fighting brought more lost work, disrupted livelihoods and fewer opportunities.
The impact was particularly severe in areas directly affected by the fighting. A July 2026 ILO report found that 76.5% of surveyed workers in Nabatieh were no longer working, compared with 43.2% in South Lebanon.
When dollar salaries still don’t pay enough
After years of currency depreciation, many businesses began pricing goods and services in dollars, and eventually everyday transactions increasingly moved from the Lebanese pound to the U.S. dollar.
In January 2024, Lebanon officially moved to dollarize customs calculations, and many sectors were already operating almost entirely in dollars.
Dollarization has also changed what a “good” salary looks like. While wages have increasingly been paid in dollars, the cost of housing, education and other services remains high.
But dollar salaries have not necessarily made entry-level jobs more attractive.
Arnaout says he often comes across accounting positions that require candidates to take on managerial-level responsibilities, including “budgeting, preparing financial reports, managing accounts and handling payroll,” yet offer salaries of barely $600 a month. That figure, he said, often includes transportation costs and comes with few, if any, additional benefits.
He also pointed to his sister, an elementary school English teacher, who earns only $300 a month. “She does it because she wants to gain experience, but her salary barely covers her generator and internet bills,” he said.
AI reshapes an already difficult job market
“Beyond WhatsApp: we build your apps, websites and online stores. Whatever your business, we have ideas – and we can build a solution for almost anything,” read a LinkedIn advertisement from a Beirut-based technology company recently promoting building apps, websites and online stores using AI-supported tools for businesses starting at $200 a month.
In Lebanon, some businesses are turning to inexpensive AI tools as they look for ways to cut costs.
Arnaout believes some entry-level positions that once would have been available to graduates like him are disappearing as companies adopt artificial intelligence tools.
“They can do a lot of the work now with ChatGPT,” he said. “Reports, calculations, organizing information. Things that junior accountants used to do.”
The concern is not unique to Lebanon. The World Economic Forum has warned that artificial intelligence and automation are expected to reshape millions of jobs globally, eliminating some tasks while creating demand for new skills.
An ILO assessment in 2022 found a “considerable mismatch” between the skills taught through education and training and those sought by employers, making it harder for young people to find work.
Mhanna has noticed more businesses turning to AI to produce posters, advertisements and other graphic designs, reducing opportunities for designers like him.
“I feel like I wasted my years with a graphic design degree,” he said.
