A Ministry of Labor report on hiring citizens and recruiting expatriates shows that 116,481 citizens were employed while 1.7 million expatriates were recruited in the fiscal year 2009-10. The expatriates included 1.1 million individuals recruited for the private sector, 565,000 to work as housemaids and 68,000 to work for the public sector, the report pointed out. Of the 116,481 citizens, 60,481 were hired through the ministry's e-gate and labor offices while 56,000 were hired directly in the private sector, according to the report. It indicated that only a few private employment agencies are still working in the market but most of them, about 259 offices, quit due to lack of cooperation on the part of private sector businesses. Khaled Al-Fakieh, economic expert, said that a quick glance at the figures of hired Saudis and recruited expats clearly indicates that there is something wrong with the labor market. “The number of Saudis employed is seven percent of the recruited foreign workers,” he said. He called for enforcing Saudization strictly warning businesses against signing bogus employment contracts with Saudis in order to be classified as green under the Nitaqat Program.
