RIYADH — The total number of employees who earn SR10,000 or more ($2600) in the Saudi labor market has reached approximately 965,000 during the second quarter of 2023, according to the latest Saudi official data. The Saudi private sector continues its high performance in hiring workers with high wages, and employees in the private sector are the highest paid in the Kingdom. The latest data issued by the General Organization for Social Insurance (GOSI) showed that 708,000 of those who draw more than SR10,000 in salary are employed with companies and establishments and they constitute 73.3 percent of the total staffers with a salary of over SR10,000. The Saudi government is working on programs and initiatives that will stimulate the private sector to generate jobs directly and indirectly, most notably the employment support from the Human Resources Development Fund (HADAF), by bearing a percentage of the employee's wages in companies and establishments. The data indicates that the number of employees who earn a salary higher than SR10,000 in the private sector has reached approximately 708,000, compared to 256,000 employees in the government sector. The data reveals that the total number of those earning SR5,000 to SR9990 ($1300 to 2600) has reached more than SR1 million employees during the second quarter of this year. The official reports showed that the total number of those earning SR10,000 or more in the private sector has reached about 473,000, an increase of 66.8 percent during the second quarter of this year compared to the same quarter five years ago in 2018. According to the data, the capital city of Riyadh alone houses nearly half of the workers whose wages exceed SR10,000 in the public and private sectors in the second quarter of 2023. On the other hand, GOSI report showed that work injuries recorded a decrease during the second quarter of this year by six percent, compared to the same period in 2022. It explained that field preventive and awareness drives, and the firms' compliance to apply occupational safety and health standards for workers have contributed to reduce work injuries, as the past three months witnessed the registration of 5800 new injuries, compared to 6100 injuries during the same period last year. According to GOSI, the decrease in injuries came despite the increase in the percentage of its subscribers by 10.9 percent, represented by 10.45 million employees, compared to 9.35 million in the same period last year. The number of establishments reached 1.2 million during the second quarter of this year, compared to 890200 during the same period of the previous year, an increase of 28 percent. It is noteworthy that Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman, who is also chairman of the Council for Economic and Development Affairs, had launched in March 2021, Shareek program to strengthen partnership with the private sector for local companies. It will enable the government's collaboration with large companies in the private sector to maximize their investment plans in the Kingdom, which will boost economic growth.This program aims to develop partnership between the government and private sectors, and accelerate the achievement of strategic goals represented in increasing the resilience of the economy and supporting prosperity and sustainable growth. The program aims to enhance the development and resilience of the Saudi economy by increasing the gross domestic product, providing job opportunities and diversifying the economy, in addition to launching private sector as well as the accumulated investments across all economic aspects with a target of SR5 trillion by 2030, and add up to SR2 trillion to the GDP by 2025, in addition to creating hundreds of thousands of new job opportunities. The program will also help, as a strategic enabler, to accelerate investment plans for major companies.
