Two months ago, the headline of the topic that I had discussed in this column was “Unemployment and housing: The need for extraordinary solutions.” In fact, the extraordinary solutions have come in the form of the royal decrees that mainly focused on addressing the problems of unemployment and housing.

In my previous article, I put forward a proposal to solve the unemployment problem. The proposal was to employ as many as 100,000 young Saudis who have qualifications but do not have university degrees. These Saudis represent the largest and most at-risk segment of our society. I suggested that they be employed in the armed forces and the Ministry of Interior. These youths can also fill vacancies as technicians in the fields of operations and maintenance.

And then comes the royal decree to employ 60,000 young men at the Ministry of Interior. I consider this step a major highlight of the solutions that I had put forward. Hopefully, this initiative will be followed by directives to make similar appointments at the Ministry of Defense and Aviation as well as at the National Guard. The private sector will not hire these jobseekers as they are not qualified. These young men can only be appointed in support jobs that are available in the government sector.

And then comes the role of the private sector, which cannot be exempted from its key role in solving the unemployment problem. They should employ holders of university degrees and those returning from abroad after obtaining higher academic qualifications under the King Abdullah Foreign Scholarship Program. There should be cooperation between the government and private sectors in making available job opportunities for the young men who are seeking jobs that would enable them to serve the country,  and earn decent salaries.

The unemployment problem in our country is still in its nascent stage. If we are keen to address this problem at the grass-roots level, like the initiative to employ 60,000 young men at the Ministry of Interior, then there will be a decrease in the number of unemployed youths in the future. The growing government and private employment market would be well suited to accommodate the university graduates coming out every year.