RIYADH — The unemployment rate of Saudis decreased from 12.9% in Q3 of 2018 to 12.8% in the previous quarter, according to the General Authority for Statistics (GaStat) figures published on Sunday. The economic participation rate of Saudis increased by 56.4% compared to 56.2% for Q2 of 2018. The economic participation rate of Saudi women increased to 19.7% compared to 19.6% for the previous quarter. The unemployment rate of Saudi women decreased by 30.9% compared to 31.1% in Q2 of 2018. The unemployment rate for Saudi men decreased by 7.5% compared to 7.6% in the second quarter of 2018. The GaStat figures also showed a decrease in the total number of employees according to the administrative records for Q3 of 2018 compared to Q2 of 2018, which reached 12,688,042 individuals compared to 13,018,066 individuals in the previous quarter, with a difference of 330,024. The results also revealed a decrease of 15,356 in the number of Saudi employees. The total number of Saudi employees reached 3,109,987 during Q3 of 2018 compared to 3,125,343 in the previous quarter. The figures showed a decrease in the number of non-Saudi male employees in the Kingdom for Q3 of 2018 by 304,972 individuals for Q2 of 2018; reaching 8,622,890 individuals in Q3 of 2018 against 8,927,862 persons in Q2 of 2018. The number of non-Saudi female workers increased by 9,696 in Q3 of 2018 compared to Q2 of 2018, reaching 955,165 people in Q2 of 2018 compared to 964,861 persons in Q3 of 2018. According to GaStat figures and based on the data of the Ministry of Civil Service, the number of Saudi jobseekers taken from the Kingdom's administrative records decreased for Q3 of 2018 to 923,504 compared to 1,118,801; down by 195,297 in Q3 compared to Q2 of 2018.
