DAMMAM – More than 615,000 Saudi men and women have been employed in the private sector in six months, thanks to the Nitaqat Saudization program, disclosed Ahmad Al-Humaidan, undersecretary for labor affairs at the Ministry of Labor. He was speaking at a meeting, attended by the Ministry officials and prominent businessmen from the Eastern Province at the Chamber of Commerce and Industry headquarters on Saturday. Out of these Saudis employed since November last year, 411,000 (85%) are still on the pay roll. Those who resigned from service or switched over to the government sector or those who died make up the remaining 15%, he said.
According to Al-Humaidan, there has been a slight decrease in the percentage of unemployment. “It reached 12.4% in 2011, of which the percentage among men and woman was 7.4 and 33.4 respectively. The unemployment rate dropped to 12.1% in the second half of 2012, with an increase among women (35.7%) and decrease among men (6.1%) respectively. Al-Humaidan said that the Ministry's initiative to calculate the number of Saudis on the basis of their salary has produced a positive impact in raising salary of about 180,000 Saudis to more SR3,000.
Among the registered foreigners, the number of those who draw a monthly salary of less than SR1,000 account for four million while those with a salary of less than SR500 are two million. Human Resources Development Fund Deputy Director General Dr. Abdul Karim Al-Najeedi said that an average 300,000 Saudis take up employment in the local market annually. – SG
