Saudi Gazette report RIYADH — There are 651,000 unemployed Saudi men and women while the Kingdom's unemployment rate has reached 5.7 percent, according to the director general of the Central Department of Statistics and Information. Addressing a press conference here on Thursday, Abdullah Al-Batil said there are more than 5.5 million Saudi men and women working in the public and private sectors. The local employment market accommodates over 200,000 Saudis every year, he said. “The department plays the role of a watchdog by checking and diagnosing the local labor market situation,” he added. The department recently disclosed that Saudi women occupy only 13 percent of the total private and public positions held by nationals despite accounting for 51 percent of Saudi graduates. The department's statistics included candidates graduating from both undergraduate and postgraduate levels and from universities in the Kingdom and abroad. The statistics also showed that 64 percent of bachelor's degree graduates from public and private universities in the Kingdom in 2010, 2011 and 2012 were women. Experts attribute the low proportion of Saudi women in the Saudi workforce to social customs and inappropriate working environments for female staff in some sectors.
