JEDDAH, 19 March 2003 — Many Saudi applicants withdrew from an open interview organized by three government agencies to fill salesmen’s vacancies in gold and jewelry stores in Jeddah, Al-Watan daily reported yesterday.
The applicants complained that gold showrooms were setting tough job conditions in order to keep Saudis out and continue their reliance on foreign workers.
The mass interview was organized by the Department of Human Resources Development, Joint National Organization for Training and the Gold and Diamond Committee.
It drew more than 180 applicants, most of them high school diploma holders to the Jeddah Center for Human Resources Development.
One of the tasks required of gold salesmen is to make sure that the interior and exterior of the showroom is always kept spick-and-span.
As soon as Saudi applicants discovered this requirement, many of them quietly slipped away. In the end, only 30 job contracts were signed.
Al-Watan said more than 1,750 foreigners were still working in the Jeddah gold market.
Earlier this month, the Kingdom enforced a decision to bar foreign workers from gold shops in an effort to Saudize jobs in the country’s vast jewelry trade which employs more than 50,000 people nationwide, including skilled and technical staff — categories which remain open to foreigners.
The government ban, applicable to 6,000 gold and diamond shops, was meant to create 60,000 jobs for Saudi nationals.
