JEDDAH, 20 May 2004 — Labor Minister Dr. Ghazi Al-Gosaibi yesterday met with directors of labor offices in various parts of the Kingdom and urged them to give priority to Saudi jobseekers. He also emphasized the need to reduce the recruitment of foreign manpower to a minimum.

“The minister urged the officials to implement its labor policy and give priority to the employment of Saudi jobseekers,” the Saudi Press Agency said. Directors of 37 labor offices took part in the meeting.

“Recruitment must be reduced to a minimum and must be allowed only if and when it is essential,” Al-Gosaibi was quoted as saying.

The minister recently took the decision to ban small companies from recruiting foreign staff in a bid to create jobs for Saudis and scale down the Kingdom’s unemployment rate.

“Labor offices have been instructed to prevent small companies with fewer than 10 workers from recruitment (of foreign staff),” he said.

Al-Gosaibi, who took over the Labor Ministry last month, said competition from foreigners made it difficult for qualified Saudis to find jobs. “The ban on recruitment was imposed to create more job opportunities for skilled Saudi laborers who cannot find jobs because of the competition from expatriates,” he said.

The minister emphasized the need to rationalize the recruitment of foreign workers to balance the labor market. The Kingdom issued 600,000 job visas last year and 120,000 visas in the first two months of this year.

Private School Jobs

The minister has issued another decision that denies recruitment visas to private schools until they Saudize 80 percent of their jobs. According to Al-Watan daily, the decision would be circulated among labor offices next week.

There are more than 19,500 teaching and administrative jobs in the Kingdom’s private schools. Saudization at private schools for girls has reached 71 percent and for boys at 20 percent, the paper said.

Earlier, there were calls to fix minimum salaries for Saudi male and female teachers to encourage them to take up jobs at private schools.

Private school authorities have complained that many Saudi teachers leave their jobs without giving notice upon getting other jobs with higher salaries. This affects the smooth management of the schools.