We read in local newspapers articles about unemployment and the problems it creates more often than we could recall. There are thousands of graduates who check newspapers every morning hunting for jobs whatever the salaries offered. They find nothing but disappointment. Some want a job to break the daily routine and lead a healthy life. Others might be in need of the monthly income because of difficult financial circumstances. Between the two, hopes of many young men and women are vanishing after each failing attempt to secure a job.

The truth is that in every home there is a young man or woman desperately looking for a job. One young woman called me to tell her tale of woe. She has a large family with a number of brothers and sisters who are all jobless. They all live on their father’s retirement income of SR3,000. With their father’s failing health, their situation is becoming more miserable. She told me she and her siblings are prepared to accept any job they can find.

I’d like to ask a few inconvenient questions. Is it logical that in a rich country like ours graduates can’t find any job in public or private sectors? How come we see many expatriates getting job offers with tempting packages? If we want to assume that certain majors or specializations are not in demand, then what happened to others, especially when many young men and women are prepared to do any job because of difficult circumstances. Why not give them a chance? I don’t believe that we’ll accept things the way they are. Neither do I believe that all employment opportunities just vanished without our noticing it.

I was discussing the problem of unemployment with a lady who suggested that family planning was the solution to the situation we find ourselves in. For those who don’t know, family planning is the practice of controlling the number of children in a family and spacing them further apart, particularly by means of artificial contraception or voluntary sterilization. She told me that by limiting the number of children in a family, parents could devote their efforts toward one or two children teaching them to be creative and develop their skills.

Honestly, I agree with the woman’s suggestion to a certain extent. But one question: There are many countries whose population exceeds ours by millions, but without facing the problem of unemployment or on a scale we do. So what’s the problem? The problem might be in relying so much on foreign labor. Over a period of time, the foreigners gain experience and acquire knowledge of the country’s policies to such an extent that they have upper hand in everything including the Saudi citizens. How many Saudis are supervised by non-Saudis in managerial positions who possess the same qualifications and skills of a Saudi? In fact, there are certain expats who control the destiny of Saudis by choosing whom to employ and whom to reject.

Perhaps it is also the fault of Saudis. I remember one manager complaining of the laziness and irresponsibility of his Saudi employee. He had a fixed idea that serious Saudi workers are rare and hard to find out these days. He noticed that Saudis give their best to their job until they get married; then suddenly they change and begin to whine and complain. If this is true we should review the education we offer to our youth. Are we teaching them that work is a tool for achieving psychological and materialistic growth or is it a means of earning money at the end of each month?

Actually, I’m curious to know the relationship between marriage and low productivity. I could somehow relate to the idea if we’re talking about a woman employee. How is it possible in the case of a man?

I don’t know how the ministries of education and labor react to the stories about the suffering of Saudi graduates who have to wait for years to get a job while thousands of employed non-Saudi teachers are recruited from abroad. Anyhow, the difficulty or the virtual impossibility of getting jobs has become part of every Saudi family’s routine and when I decided to write about one girl’s suffering and her family I was only trying to remind my readers of the bitterness all this creates in that household. I honestly wish someone would come forward to help this family not only financially but also by securing them jobs.