JEDDAH, 28 January — The government has banned foreigners aged under 40 from working in thousands of shops selling female perfumes, accessories and shoes in a bid to give Saudi nationals more job opportunities, press reports said yesterday.
The decision was taken by the Manpower Council headed by Interior Minister Prince Naif, Al-Watan newspaper reported.
The move comes just three months after a similar decision banned foreigners under 40 from working in jewelry shops. Expatriate men under 40 are also barred from sales jobs at ladies’ garment shops.
The 6,000 privately owned Saudi stores account for 72 percent of foreign workers in the private sector, the newspaper reported.
Companies that violate the rules have been threatened with hefty financial fines with deportation for the foreign workers.
The authorities have launched a campaign to reduce the number of expatriates in the Kingdom, estimated at around seven million, to overcome unemployment among Saudis, which experts estimate at more than 15 percent.
Two laws came into effect in September ordering corner shops to employ only Saudis and private businesses employing more than 20 people to increase the number of Saudi nationals to 30 percent of the workforce.
The government plans an annual 2.25 percent decrease in the number of foreign workers in Saudi Arabia during the next two decades. It forecasts an increase in the Saudi workforce to from 3.17 million workers in 1999 to 3.99 million by 2004 and 8.26 million by 2020.
Saudi Arabia has a general population of 22 million, 25 percent of whom are foreigners. Some 900,000 Saudis make up 78 percent of the public sector workforce, with the rest being foreigners, according to statistics released by the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency.
There are some 6.3 million private sector employees, 61 percent, or 3.8 million, of which are non-Saudi, the Saudi central bank said.
