The Ministry of Labor has admitted that there is a black market for visas that is difficult to control. An official source in the Ministry of Labor told Okaz/Saudi Gazette that monitoring programs have uncovered the black market. He said there is an “inability to stop this market because the Ministry of Labor cannot ban citizens from obtaining visas if they fulfill conditions for obtaining them, even if these visas have been obtained with the intention of trading in them.” In a related matter, Qussay Filali, Director General of the Labor Office in Jeddah Governorate, told Okaz/Saudi Gazette that the Ministry of Labor would eliminate unemployment within five years through a strategic plan to instill the principle of national manpower. Families, the Ministry of Higher Education and the Technical and Vocational Training Corporation are partners in ensuring that the plan is successful, Filali said. The number of unemployed people in the Kingdom rose to 10.5 percent of the working population, the latest government report revealed. The report released by the General Department of Statistics and Information, a division of the Ministry of Planning and Economy, showed the number of jobless has risen by 32,197 people from September 2008 to August 2009. This has brought the total number of unemployed citizens in the Kingdom to 444,847. According to the report, 44 percent of unemployed people hold bachelor degree certificates, while 39.9 percent are educated to secondary school level.
