RIYADH, 20 February — Unemployment among Saudi males is set to rise to 15 percent this year, the Saudi American Bank said in a report issued yesterday.
"We estimate that unemployment among Saudi males stands at 14 percent," said the SAMBA report drawn up by its chief economist Brad Bourland, who predicted a one-percent increase in 2001.
"Higher growth in the private sector, increased government hiring, and Saudization do not create enough new jobs to absorb all of the over 100,000 new entrants to the labor market," the report said. "Unemployment remains the most important challenge for the Saudi economy."
SAMBA explained that its figures related to male job-seekers because women "do not enter the labor market in large numbers" as they are restricted mostly to the education and health sectors.
The current figure for unemployed Saudis stands at 360,000, according to the Manpower Council.
The government aims to create employment for an additional 817,300 Saudis over the next five years through a mixture of Saudization and the creation of new jobs. But the economy is falling far short of the target and has been creating only 25,000 extra jobs a year for Saudis, or one for every four Saudi males entering the job market annually, SAMBA said.
