JEDDAH, 2 March 2004 — Some Saudis are reluctant to take up menial jobs, but growing unemployment, estimated unofficially at 30 percent, is forcing many to take any job available, or to come up with creative solutions where no jobs are to be had — proof perhaps of the self-regulating quality of a free market.
Nineteen-year-old Muhammad Salman has established the Kingdom’s first sheep laundry near Jeddah’s central sheep market after all attempts to find a job failed.
“I believe this is an honorable job. There is nothing to be ashamed of,” he told Al-Madinah Arabic daily.
Salman has a thoroughly professional attitude to providing services. He has bought a number of water tanks for the purpose and uses top-of-the-range detergents and brushes.
“I am very comfortable with this job, and I am making good money,” he said, adding that he made a clean profit of SR2,000 last month.
Earlier Salman employed an expatriate worker to wash his herd of sheep. But when the government intensified the Saudization drive, he sent the worker back and decided to do the job himself.
“Then I came up with the idea of an open laundry to clean the sheep of others. It was a good idea, as we have a steady stream of customers,” he said.
Now Salman is expanding his business and has hired more young Saudis for the laundry. “Other Saudis are welcome to apply,” he said. “We can give them a job.”
