Only 10 percent of the estimated seven million jobs held by expatriates are needed to “significantly reduce” Saudi unemployment, said Adel Fakieh, Minister of Labor. According to a report in an Arabic newspaper on Monday, Fakieh made the comment while opening a jobs exhibition in Jeddah on Sunday. “We are not speaking about or looking for low-paid jobs. We have one million job seekers in the Hafiz Program of which 85 percent are women, with 200,000 Saudi male job seekers. There are seven million jobs being filled by expatriates, so this shows that we only need 10 percent of these jobs to significantly reduce unemployment in the Kingdom,” Fakieh was quoted as saying. He said the ministry introduced the Nitaqat Program to force the private sector to employ more Saudis. Fakieh added that the Hafiz Program organizes the “supply process” by documenting the CVs of all job seekers and sends them to business owners. As part of this program, the ministry will next month launch an online employment site where job seekers can post their CVs and employers look for workers. In the upcoming months, the ministry will release detailed statistics showing the numbers recruited by the ministry, those still looking for jobs, and the Saudization percentages at local firms. Fakieh added that the ministry is scheduled to launch next month a program to oversee and protect the salaries of citizens and expatriates. The program will initially be introduced at big companies, then medium-sized companies and finally small enterprises. He said the program would ensure a healthy atmosphere for the growth and expansion of small and medium-sized businesses and curtail “Tasattur” or coverup businesses.
