Mubasher: The labour market in Saudi Arabia showed that the unemployment rate decreased slightly to 12.8% during the third quarter of 2018 compared to 12.9% in the previous two quarters, according to the General Authority for Statistics (GaStat).
The participation of Saudi female labour force remained high at 19.7% in Q3-18, up from 17.8% during the same quarter in 2017, GaStat’s recent data showed.
The total number of foreigners working in the Saudi labour market went down by nearly 1.4 million since the start of 2017, with 265,000 leaving the market during Q3-18.
During Q3-18, an increase in the number of foreign workers was witnessed within the higher wage bracket leaving the market.
Wages for Saudi workers have been increasing since the first quarter of 2017, especially so for males working in the private sector.
GaStat expects this upward trend to continue in the medium term.
The official entity noted that “Data shows that all sectors saw a drop in the number of foreign workers, with construction losing 162,000 foreign workers, followed by trade with 58,000.”
In September 2018, the Saudi labour ministry, in collaboration with the Human Resource Development Fund (HRDF), laid out three stages of Saudisation relating specifically to the retail -or trade- sector, GaStat added.
The three stages target nationalising 70% of sales jobs in the Saudi wholesale and retail sector, replacing the previous target of 100% nationalisation, GaStat indicated.
By the end of 2019, about 170,000 jobs for Saudis, both males and females are expected to be generated as a result of the three stages of Saudisation.
