RIYADH — More than 425,000 establishments have entered the Saudi labor market in a year, with an average of 1,166 establishments a day. This was revealed during data monitoring conducted by Okaz/Saudi Gazette, based on government reports, for establishments entering the labor market from the end of the first quarter of 2022 until the end of the first quarter of the current year. The report revealed that the number of active establishments has increased by 54.98%, bringing the total number of establishments to more than 1.2 million, compared to the previous year, when it was about 775,000 establishments. Mega establishments with more than 500 employees have witnessed a growth of 10.82% to reach 1,843 establishments at the end of the second quarter of this year. Of 180 new entrants to the labor market, 159 establishments were in the private sector, while 21 were government establishments. The number of micro-enterprises, with four workers or less, has increased by 69.32% with the entry of about 392,000 establishments, of which 62 were registered as government establishments. Commercial establishments in Saudi Arabia have been divided into 12 groups based on the size of their workforce and all groups have recorded growth in their numbers, according to official statistics for the last 12 months. Most of the increase was witnessed in the private sector establishments, as about 397,000 of the establishments entered the labor market, with an estimated growth of 64.7 percent in a whole year. The General Organization for Social Insurance (GOSI) has announced that insurance benefits paid in June 2023 amounted to more than SR10.4 billion, while the number of completed transactions amounted to more than SR2.7 million. All of these transactions have been carried out electronically. GOSI pointed out that the expenses of Saudi Arabia's Unemployment Insurance Law (Sanid) amounted to more than SR76.5 million, while pensions paid by the occupational hazards branch amounted to more than SR16 million.
