JEDDAH, 5 May 2007 — The Kingdom’s Saudization drive is not aimed at finding only menial jobs for its nationals but all jobs in the private sector, Labor Minister Ghazi Al-Gosaibi said yesterday.
“Newspapers sometimes report that my ministry is concerned with Saudization of menial jobs only. This is not true. In fact, we want to find employment for all Saudi job seekers,” the minister said.
Gosaibi told job seekers that their Saudi identity alone would not be enough for them to get jobs. “Even among unqualified Saudis there is a notion that their Saudi identity is enough to employ them in the private sector and get the salary they want.” In a statement carried by the Saudi Press Agency, Gosaibi said private companies often employed qualified Saudis without his ministry’s interference.
He said about 86 percent of 155,000 Saudis registered with the employment bureau were secondary school certificate holders. “Only five percent of them hold bachelor’s degrees,” the Saudi Press Agency quoted him as saying. “Another problem we are facing is that the educational qualification of most job seekers does not comply with private sector requirements.”
Gosaibi acknowledged that employment of unqualified and inexperienced workers reduce productivity and increase expenditures. “We’ll not instruct the private sector to employ any Saudi job seeker before he or she receives the required training to fill a particular job,” he said.
He called upon Saudis to make use of the free training programs offered by the various government departments. “The salary scale of a worker will depend on his qualification and experience. Those who are intending to obtain high salaries should attend training programs in order to improve their skills.”
