DAMMAM: Recruitment from Ethiopia and Kenya currently constitutes over 80 percent of the supply of house workers creating “a whole new market”, a member of the Eastern Province Recruitment Committee has said. According to the member of the Chamber of Commerce committee, Ethiopians and Kenyans have become the most sought after source of labor due to the speed and ease with which recruitment procedures are conducted coupled with the ongoing stalemate over new contract conditions for workers from Indonesia and the Philippines. “The maximum time it takes to recruit someone from Ethiopia or Kenya is 45 days,” the committee member told Okaz/Saudi Gazette. “The increase in demand for workers from those two countries has led to the creation of a whole new market, and the number of contracting offices in those countries has shot up in recent times.” He said that Ethiopia now had 170 licensed contracting offices in operation and Kenya 150. “That number is only likely to increase further as demand rises,” he said. One drawback which is being addressed by the authorities concerned is the lack of training given to labor from Ethiopia and Kenya. “National offices are working with their foreign counterparts to set up training institutes through joint investment to provide the workers with the skills they need before they depart for the Kingdom, following the model of Indonesia and the Philippines,” he said. Recruitment costs for Ethiopian domestic workers, who earn salaries of SR700, currently stand at SR8,000. The cost for Kenya workers with their salaries of SR800 is SR9,000.
