Abdullah, director of women's work development, Ministry of Labor, said the ministry has issued a number of legislations that will deal with the increasing number of jobless women and create job opportunities for them in the private sector. In her paper entitled “Development of Women: Reality and Expectations” which she presented during the Women's Work Week being held in the Eastern Province, Al-Abdullah said the percentage of Saudi female workers in the private sector is still low compared with their expatriate counterparts. In Riyadh alone, 44 percent of female expatriates work for the private sector while in the Eastern Province the percentage is 22 percent and in Makkah 18 percent, she added. “According to our analysis, 45 percent of the jobless total are Saudi women, 41 percent of whom hold a bachelor's degree, 29 percent secondary school certificates and 28 percent diplomas. Only two percent are classed as illiterate.” The ministry is coordinating with the Ministry of Higher Education to hold workshops that will help students identify the skills required by employers, she pointed out. She also revealed that more women labor offices will be set up over the next five months all over the Kingdom and a plan will be implemented to create job opportunities for women in factories. According to the Central Department of Statistics and Information, there are about 448,000 jobless Saudis, of whom women constituted 44 percent of the total. She attributed the reasons for high unemployment among women to the increasing number of female university graduates, low wages and the reluctance of female workers to look for jobs in the private sector. There are 311,000 women working for the government sector, 275,000 of whom are Saudis and 36,000 non-Saudis. Women constitute 31 percent of the 900,000 government labor force. About 137,000 women, Saudi and non-Saudi, are working in the private sector. The figure represents only two percent of total private sector workforce of 6.9 million. The number of Saudi female workers in the private sector is 48,000, 80 percent of whom work in the education, seven percent in healthcare, five percent in academia and three percent do labor jobs. She also said the overwhelming majority of female workers are located in three main regions: Riyadh (43 percent), Makkah (23 percent) and Eastern Province (20 percent). As for Saudi female workers, 42 percent of them are in Riyadh, 26 percent in Makkah and 22 percent in the Eastern Province. __
