Okaz/Saudi Gazette JEDDAH — Saudi men and women joining the private sector in the local employment market during the second quarter of the year 2019 reached 44,814, with an average entry of 492 Saudis in a day, according to the latest report of the National Labor Observatory (NLO.Sa). The report showed that the number of expatriates leaving the private sector during the same period accounted for 133,652, with an average departure of 1,468 persons on a daily basis. According to the report, a total of 11,611 Saudi women have benefited from the program called "Wusool" for the transportation of workingwomen during the second quarter of the year. The program aims to empower women for work and support the sustainability of their work, by providing transportation to and fro between their home and workplace at a reasonable cost by ensuring highly safe mode of transportation, with a monthly transportation cost of not more than SR800. Around 80 percent of the transportation cost is to be provided by a government support scheme for a full year. With regard to the program to support women's work (feminization of shops and factories) in accordance to their qualifications, a total of 5,043 women have benefited from the program at women accessory shops and 2,650 women at factories during the period. As far as the program to support owners of small enterprises is concerned, the number of beneficiaries reached 3,152 men and women, the report showed. This program aims to support and encourage citizens to run small enterprises with their strategies to manage these establishments through provision of material support to meet their basic needs and family requirements during the operational phase. This comes after stopping requests for support under the program by the end of last year. The National Observatory portal, launched on Jan. 31 this year with the objective of further boosting Saudization and regulating labor market, has contributed to the strategic transformation by providing data and information about the major topics pertaining to the labor market in the Kingdom. The strategic objectives of the Observatory include provision of accurate and reliable data to all stakeholders, supplying analysis and insights to business partners, to build a network of experts and professionals to meet the challenges of the labor market, and to manage and disseminate knowledge.
