RIYADH, 25 July 2005 — Only 36,000 Saudis who registered themselves as “jobless” in the Labor Ministry’s employment campaign have actually re-contacted the ministry to seek jobs, according to Deputy Minister of Labor Ahmed Al-Zamil.
Responding to a question from Arab News regarding ministry plans for a similar campaign targeting women since there are no statistics about jobless women in the Kingdom, he said that such campaigns could still not estimate the actual figures of those who are in dire need of jobs.
“In the campaign we carried out several months ago, we found out that only 36,000 applicants of the total 180,000 people who registered with us in the ministry came forward to seek jobs,” Al-Zamil said yesterday during a Riyadh news conference.
“Many also have registered thinking that they would be given some sort of reward,” he said. “We at the ministry call them up to ask them to come forward after registering. And despite that, the majority of people who answered raised the question ‘how much will I get paid?’ as their first impulse.”
He said one particular applicant — who only has a high school degree — was told that he would get a SR2,000 salary and refused to take the job, saying that he would not settle for anything less than SR4,500, an attitude found in many of the Saudi applicants.
Al-Zamil denied that the ministry was only giving low-income jobs to jobless applicants and in fields unsuitable to their majors or expertise, noting that many bachelor degree applicants are now getting salaries of as much as SR15,000 after contacting the ministry.
“The jobs are there; they are in various fields,” he said. “But where are the people to fill them?”
Al-Zamil also said the ministry has no intention to set a minimum wage for salaries, saying that Saudi Arabia has an open market, which is competitive and relies on experience.
The deputy minister said the ministry was seeking to provide more job opportunities for Saudis in the Saudi market by implementing the legislation passed by the Council of Ministers. According to the new legislation, any institution with less than 10 employees must employ one Saudi.
Industrial or business companies with work forces of 20 employees or more must have 30 percent staffing by Saudis, or 10 percent for maintenance or contracting companies.
“Most of the institutions we have here have fewer than 20 employees, and more jobs will be provided to Saudis through this new legislation,” he said.
Al-Zamil said that the Ministry of Labor, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Interior have agreed that all work-permits given to foreigners were valid for one year only, not two.
He said various reasons prompted the ministries to arrive at this decision, such as changes in the labor market, Ministry of Interior regulations and Saudis being replaced by foreigners in many jobs.
Al-Zamil dismissed press reports about the ministry signing a contract with four companies to create public awareness about the employment of women as untrue. He also denied a published report of a new law forbidding the transfer of iqamas from one institution to another, calling the report baseless.
Regarding “imaginary jobs” where some companies agree with some Saudis who do not work there that they be paid a sum of money to file their names to the Labor Office to achieve Saudization quotas, he said there was a special department in the ministry to handle such scam cases.
“The Ministry of Labor will very soon implement a new law where those who apply for a work permit and submit the names of their Saudi employees must first register them with the Social Insurance,” he said.
This measure, he said, would guarantee that the names provided are Saudis who actually work in the institutions and receive monthly salaries.
“We already have sent out our directives to all Labor Offices to implement these instructions,” he added.
