JEDDAH, 10 May — The Manpower Council is currently preparing a project to solve the unemployment problem among Saudi women.
The council has been examining various measures, including fixing of a minimum wage to female workers, Okaz newspaper yesterday quoted Abdul Wahid Al-Homaid, secretary-general of the council and a member of the Shoura Council, as saying.
Al-Homaid said a recent study has indicated that only 5.8 percent of the four million Saudi women of working age have found employment. The private sector employs 10 percent of them, while the rest are in the government sector.
The number of Saudi women between 19 and 49 is 3.38 million, and most of them need jobs to supplement the rapidly expanding family budget. The study also pointed out that the major obstacle in the recruitment of women was lack of training facilities.
Wadad Bakharji, director of the women’s office of Prince Muhammad ibn Fahd Project for Training and Employment in the Eastern Province, attributed low demand for female workers in the private sector as the major reason for unemployment among women.
Prince Muhammad Project is currently exploring opportunities for jobs and training facilities for women in areas where there is a high worker demand.
The project has already generated great interest in the private sector, Bakharji said. Several companies have come forward to train women in various jobs, she added.
The Gulf Women’s Society plans to train women as kindergarten teachers. A training center in Dammam is offering training in secretarial work. A number of private schools, hospitals and clinics have also expressed their willingness to train women.
However, the official noted that the response from women was not encouraging. “The number of applicants for the training projects is not very high,” she said.
