RIYADH: Saudis face the spectre of unemployment as the oil-rich kingdom, home to millions of foreign workers, battles to enrol tens of thousands of its mostly young population who graduate each year.
Although the kingdom has the largest Arab economy, and is the world’s biggest oil exporter, the unemployment rate remains above 10 per cent in a country where youth represent 55 to 60 per cent of around 19 million nationals.
“I applied for jobs with the public and private sector, but I had no luck,” complained Majed Hasan, 26, who has an English- language degree, and that the low salary and long working hours drove him away from working at a translation office.
Majed, who lives in the western city of Jeddah, said he worked for a year in a telecommunications shop, then opened his own grocery, which he had to shut down “due to competition from foreigners”.
Mufreh al-Kubaishi, 25, who has a law degree from an Australian university, said he was “considering going for post-graduate studies because (work) conditions are not encouraging”.
He said he has two sisters and a brother in the southwestern province of Jazan who graduated a few years ago and are still without jobs.
The World Bank has said unemployment among Saudis has remained above 10 per cent in past years, hitting mainly newcomers into the labour force, especially university graduates.
Dozens of universities across the desert kingdom pump out some 100,000 graduates every year into a work force dominated by some eight million foreigners, mostly from Southeast Asia, who are prepared to take the low wages that a Saudi would reject.
One of the main problems is that Saudis prefer government jobs, where salaries are better and working hours are shorter than in the private sector.
The private sector appears also not keen on employing Saudis.
Saudi economist Ihsan Abu Haliqa argued that the problem is due to a “lack of determination” to accommodate the Saudis in jobs that are filled by foreigners.
“Official statistics show that in 2011 alone, some 1.1 million work visas were issued for foreigners who are above the level of domestic workers and the like. This means around 100,000 workers being brought in monthly,” he said.
Economics lecturer at King Abdulaziz University in Jeddah, Farouk al-Khatib, said the public sector represents job security and less stress for Saudis.
“The rights of employees are better secured than they are in the private sector. There is no arbitrary dismissal, nor overtime work, while working hours end in the early afternoon, and the weekend break is two days,” he said.
He said that even those who do join the private sector continue to look for a job in the public sector.
In an attempt to tackle the growing problem, Saudi authorities have been for many years trying to “Saudise” jobs and created a support programme for job seekers.
In January, Labour Minister Adel Faqih said “the main challenge facing us is how to find new jobs for Saudis in the private sector, because we need three million posts by 2015 and six million by 2030”. He said Saudis should replace foreign workers, who “transfer home 100 billion riyals ($26.7 billion/21.1 billion euros) a year”.
Under its “Nitaqat” (Ranges) programme, which is aimed at prodding local firms to employ Saudis, the labour ministry imposed new quotas last year on companies for hiring local staff, which would determine their ability to recruit foreigners.
For example, banks with a work force of up to 500 must now have a work force that is at least 49 per cent Saudi.—AFP
By Assaad Abboud