“More Than 40,000 Saudis Flock to the Ministry of Finance to Apply for 80 Jobs.” The headline attracted my attention as it did that of many others. A glance at the headline should have been enough to reveal the size of our unemployment tragedy but I was even more puzzled after reading the article.
In the article, a ministry official denied the number of jobs sought by the applicants was only 80; the official stressed that the exact number of jobs available at the ministry is unknown at present.
Why unknown? Because, according to the official, more jobs may become vacant and so the new jobs would be added to the list. In other words, he wanted to tell us that at some future time, some ministry employees will reach the age of retirement, resign or die while the process of sorting out the 40,000 applications continues.
Because the ministry wants to be both precise and honest, it did not specify the exact number of available jobs but instead left this to the last minute when the result of the marathon competition became public knowledge. Not for a minute should anyone think that the increase in the number of jobs will be a mere 10 or 20 because, as the official said, the currently vacant jobs could more than double and might even reach 320 or more.
Who knows? The ministry may surprise everyone by employing half the 40,000 applicants or even the entire number. This should come as no surprise from a ministry that for years has served a storehouse full of secrets and surprises. It is this ministry alone that decides the path and progress of development in this country, approving the projects it likes and rejecting those it doesn’t — without anyone having the right to know why. By this same logic, 40,000 people dreaming of jobs have no right to know the mechanism that the ministry will use in sorting the applications and filling its vacant positions. The dreamers may not even know the number of available jobs or when the final result will be announced. However, another official volunteered to say that the process might take up to three months or even longer. In the meantime, the applicants will converge every day on the officials at the ministry and will continue to do so until they have lost all hope.
I hope the press will not forget this matter. Raising the issue with the ministry once a month will enable people to find out what has happened — and is happening — to those dreaming of jobs.
— Arab News Local Press 6 October 2003
