RIYADH, 12 September 2005 — The recruitment of overseas manpower dropped by 20.6 percent, or 47,225 visas, while the number of Saudis hired went up by over 16 percent in the first half of this year compared with the corresponding period last year.
Dr. Abdulwahid Al-Humaid, deputy minister of labor for planning and development, announced the figures at a press conference yesterday. The job categories included architects, farmers, taxi and truck drivers, painters, barbers, construction workers, plumbers and mechanics.
Dr. Al-Humaid also announced that the ministry would in the next two weeks unveil a new system that seeks to strike a balance between the rights of the employer and the employee, since the Kingdom is committed to honoring its international obligations.
Statistics released at the press conference show the decrease in some visa categories ranging from 32 percent each in the service sector and secretarial manpower to 30 percent each in sales force and the manufacturing sectors, 25 percent in managerial and administrative positions and 20 percent in scientific and technical jobs.
Expatriate manpower reduction also occurred in most of the occupations ranging from a low of two percent in the case of farm hands to a high of 96 percent for carpenters.
The number of visas approved in the first half of this year for maids and drivers dropped by about 22.7 percent compared to the same period last year. Visas approved in the first half of this year reached 139,638 as against 180,744 in the corresponding period last year. Of the approved visas, 98,627 were allocated for maids and 38,632 for house drivers.
Al-Humaid said the number of Saudis working in the private sector surged by 13.91 percent up to August this year. The number of Saudis registered in the ministry reached 787,222 against 691,093 last year. Additionally, the number of Saudis who were employed through the labor offices since the launch of the ministry’s campaign till August this year had reached 45,583.
A total of 787,222 are employed in the private sector, while expatriates total 5,637,947. The establishments which had over 20 employees or more had 717,338 Saudis, while expatriates numbered 3,736,771.
The total number of workers was 4,454,109, of which Saudis made up 16.11 percent. The number of Saudis in establishments with less than 20 employees stood at 69,884, while the figure for expatriates was 1,901,176. This works out to a total of 1,971,060. Saudis formed 3.55 percent in this category.
The deputy minister said the number of Saudi students joining the colleges of technology was on the rise. The total number of applicants in the Kingdom reached 29,019,46 percent had averages of over 80 percent. He said 17 colleges of technology received applications via the Internet, while 11 other colleges received them by hand.
He pointed out that the ministry mounted a public awareness campaign on the need to confine the overseas manpower recruitment within the framework of the national goal.
Dr. Al-Humaid said the ministry was currently studying ways of streamlining the manpower recruitment procedures, especially for maids and drivers. He dwelt on the negative impact of wholesale reliance on maids. “It will create an adverse social impact, since expatriates working here are not immigrants. They are contract workers hired for a specific period.”
He said the ministry established a new department to deal with expatriate’s problems. It also set up a department for monitoring companies which hire Saudis just for record, and also those companies that are recruiting illegal expatriates, he added.
