78.7% private companies not covered by Nitaqat

Around 78.7 percent of companies in the private sector are not included in the Nitaqat program (coded green, yellow and red) but fall in the white range which is unregistered, according to a study.
The study, originally prepared for the forthcoming 6th Riyadh Economic forum (Dec. 9-11), said approximately 836,796 out of 1.06 million firms in the private sector are not included in the Nitaqat program.
The white sector firms are staffed by less than a quarter of private sector employees totaling 8.79 million, according to the study. They include jobs which cannot be nationalized such as cleaning staff or drilling and plumbing technicians. The study suggested that this category be kept off the Nitaqat program.
Firms in the green category stood at 13.6 percent followed by the red at 3.1 percent and the yellow at 2.2 percent. There is also a medium-green and golden category with 1 percent each. The green category firms have the largest number of manpower or 55.9 percent of the total work force.
According to data released by the Nitaqat program, non-Saudis comprise 85.6 percent of the work force compared to only 3 percent of Saudi women working in the private sector.
The study showed that 84.5 percent of the work force in the Saudi private sector is employed in the construction, wholesale and retail, manufacturing, agricultural, forestry, hunting and fishing industries.