RIYADH — There has been an increase of 23.2 percent in the economic participation of Saudi women in the second quarter of 2019 while compared to 20.5 percent in the previous quarter. The overall economic participation of Saudis (males and females aged 15 years and above) reached 45 percent in the second quarter compared to 42.3 percent in the first quarter. This information was contained in the employment market bulletin issued on Thursday by the General Authority for Statistics (GASTA) for the second quarter of 2019, the Saudi Press Agency reported. According to the estimates of the workforce survey, the unemployment rate of the total population (15 years and above) fell to 5.6 percent in the second quarter, compared to six percent for the first quarter of the year. As for the unemployment rate of Saudis, there has been a decrease in the total number, reaching 12.3 percent in second quarter, compared to 12.5 percent in the first quarter of 2019. According to the administrative records data, the total number of Saudi employees has decreased to 3,090,248 in the second quarter compared to 3,112,029 in the first quarter. The data in the administrative records in the Kingdom showed that total number of Saudi jobseekers during the second quarter reached 1,002,855. The GASTA clarified job seekers as Saudi men and women registered in the government in search of job with the Jadara and Saaed portals of the Ministry of Civil Service and the Taqat portal of Human Resources Development Fund. The data was collected from the administrative records of the relevant authorities such as the Ministry of Labor and Social Development, Ministry of Civil Service, the General Organization for Social Insurance, the Human Resources Development Fund and the National Information Center.
