- RIYADH: A group of 250 unemployed Saudi university graduates staged a rare protest in the capital Riyadh, and the group’s spokesman vowed on Sunday to keep up the demonstrations till the government creates jobs for them.
“We are a group of teachers who have not found any jobs. We have staged a peaceful protest in front of the Ministry of Education ... We would like to protest for longer but the police keep dispersing us,” Nayef Al-Tamimi said.The protesters, who staged a similar protest in August, met with ministry officials to demand the creation of more jobs in government schools.“There is a big chance that we will stage another protest. They promised us that they will announce jobs soon but if they don’t then we will stage another protest,” Tamimi said.Teachers are offered SR2,000 a month in the private sector for a job that pays around SR8,000 a month in government schools, Tamimi said.Many Saudis are forced to work as taxi drivers, private security guards or other low-paid jobs to make ends meet.Up to a third of Saudi Arabia’s population of some 27 million are thought to be foreigners.Saudi Arabia is currently spending $400 billion on infrastructure projects in addition to rolling out three consecutive record budgets in an effort to stimulate the economy and create more jobs for its fast-growing native population.