RIYADH, 23 July 2007 — Saudi Arabia is not considering reducing the quota set for employment of Saudi nationals in the commercial sector, a statement from the Labor Ministry said yesterday.
The Saudization quota, which allots a certain percentage of jobs for Saudi nationals, varies from sector to sector, ranging between five percent and 20 percent of a particular company’s work force.
“The ministry is not considering reducing the Saudization quota for the time being,” Labor Minister Ghazi Al-Gosaibi said in a statement published by the Saudi Press Agency.
Some employers have complained that it is difficult to meet the government’s quotas because of a lack of skilled citizens for high-end jobs or difficulties in recruiting Saudis for low-skilled jobs that foreigners are willing to do for much less money. Generally speaking, the more the sector requires technical expertise by workers with advanced degrees, the lower the Saudization quota.
The minister said that his ministry would “act firmly” in seeing that establishments implement the directive. He said that commercial establishments had already been given three years to train Saudi workers to replace foreigners in several sectors.
Earlier this year, the ministry announced that dozens of local companies had been banned from importing foreign workers because they had failed to meet their Saudization quota. Some of those businesses were found to have Saudization quotas of less than one percent of their employees.
A source from the Labor Ministry, who did not want to be named because he was unauthorized to speak to the press, said that the ministry’s most recent statement was to send a message to employers that the government is serious about enforcing quotas.
“There are special teams in the labor offices of each region tasked to check whether businesses are complying with the directive or not,” the source said. Businesses that fail to comply with the directive are warned, he added.
Despite the ministry’s endeavors to promote Saudization over the past years, the recruitment of foreign manpower increased by 100 percent within a year due mainly to the construction boom and the demand for cheap labor for the industry. A Labor Ministry official told the London-based Financial Times recently that his ministry had issued 750,000 visas for foreign manpower in 2006, which is an increase of more than 100 percent compared to visas granted during 2005 (353,000).
Authorities had predicted that the new high-profile development projects would create more job opportunities for young Saudis and reduce the country’s unemployment rate, which is estimated at 12 percent.
According to Al-Gosaibi, his ministry had earlier specified 25 commercial practices for Saudis only in the following outlets: stores that sell women’s garments, stores that sell underwear, stores that sell men’s garments, stores that sell children’s games, stores that sell abayas, stores that sell sewing material, stores that sell perfumes and colognes, stores that sell Arabian incense, flower and gift shops, two-riyal stores, furniture stores, shoe stores, watch stores, kiosks located in commercial centers, stationary stores, cafeterias in public and private schools, mobile and accessory stores, poultry stores, stores that rent furniture for social occasions, car accessory stores, car parts stores, tent stores, paint stores and finally construction and plumbing stores.
The directive specifying the 25 commercial practices was issued in 2004. “A deadline for the implementation of this directive was set for three years. People are already witnessing that Saudis are replacing non-Saudis in these shops,” he said.
