JEDDAH, 22 November 2006 — Labor Minister Ghazi Al-Gosaibi yesterday announced a 25-year strategy to fight unemployment among Saudis, which according to latest official estimates, is 9.1 percent among men and 26.3 percent among women.
“We will implement 26 policies through 108 mechanisms in order to reduce unemployment in the short- and long-terms,” he said.
The minister called for stringent measures to cut the unemployment rate and for reducing the country’s addiction to foreign labor.
“The unemployment problem is a major challenge,” the Saudi Press Agency quoted Gosaibi as saying. “It cannot be dealt with while the country’s doors are open to hundreds of thousands of expatriate workers every year.” Gosaibi attributed the employment problem to the low qualifications of job seekers, incompatibility of their educational qualifications with job-market requirements, lack of readiness on the part of some private companies to apply Saudization policies, and low salaries offered by private firms.
“Fighting unemployment will remain the ministry’s priority,” Gosaibi said. “Ending unemployment is essential in the light of the new statistics.” The minister was referring to a study conducted by the General Statistics Department on work force in the Kingdom.
He spoke about the ministry’s nationwide campaign to provide employment for nationals. “Among some 155,000 Saudi job seekers registered with us during the campaign we have found employment for about 133,000 people by August of this year,” he pointed out.
Referring to the ministry’s efforts to cut foreign recruitment, Gosaibi said the number of recruitment visas issued annually declined from 597,000 visas in 2002 to 353,000 last year. He said the unemployment rate did not reflect the Kingdom’s current robust economic growth.
The Kingdom plans to build massive economic cities across the country as part of its efforts to achieve regional development and create more jobs for its citizens. The four economic cities already launched in Rabigh, Hail, Madinah and Jizan aim at attracting SR300 billion ($80 billion) in investment and generating at least one million new jobs.
In a recent statement, Crown Prince Sultan emphasized the government’s resolve to fight unemployment. “The new educational and infrastructure projects ordered by the king reflect his desire to achieve balanced growth in all parts of the country,” he said. “The new projects will also create job opportunities for thousands of young Saudis. As a result, there will not be any unemployed among Saudi youth as all of them will be provided jobs within the next five years.” The Human Resource Development Fund has played a significant role in providing employment for Saudis in cooperation with the private sector. “The fund has so far trained and employed 144,450 Saudis during the past years,” Gosaibi said.
He referred to the ministry’s efforts in dealing with false Saudization claims (when employers fabricate their Saudi employment quotas) and illegal visa transactions as well as imposing Saudization regulations. He said the ministry would continue its efforts to expand job opportunities for women in the light of a Cabinet decision that had also called for developing a partnership between the ministry and the private sector.
