It must be wondered if it is merely a coincidence, that on the same day, two Saudi employers challenged the authorities to find them locals to take over jobs that are currently done by expatriates.

The National Gas and Industrialization Company (GASCO) said this week that it wanted to recruit 50 Saudis to be truck drivers, so that it did not have to risk breaching Saudization quotas by hiring foreign workers. Then, in response to the Labor Ministry’s demand that they boost the ratio of locals to above 50 percent, contractors have asked the ministry to supply them with these new hires from the Saudi worker pool.

A Riyadh Chamber of Commerce and Industry meeting attended by 20 leading contracting companies was told that these firms would rather actually halt projects and incur contractual penalties than pay “huge fees” for employing more foreigners than the government now allows. They were sharply critical of what they claimed was a lack of analysis of the labor market, before the new quota rules were introduced.

There are in fact two issues here, which ought not to be conflated. The first is the Saudization drive itself. No one can deny that it is entirely wrong that, when we have growing unemployment in the country, especially among young people, there are eight million expatriates at work in the Kingdom. To get Saudis into jobs that are currently being done by foreigners is a no brainer. The social and economic benefits of properly-paid work for those currently without jobs, are absolutely clear.

Business may imagine that they are saving on the wage bill by employing foreigners, especially in menial jobs, which are invariably undertaken by workers from developing countries. However the societal costs, in terms of low esteem, depression and lack of economic opportunity among the Kingdom’s unemployed, completely outweigh these savings. If the country suffers, so then, ultimately do its businessmen. On top of this, Saudi corporate leaders should consider the financial loss as billions of dollars are sent home every year by expatriate workers, for whom even the low Saudi salaries, are considered fabulous, when compared with pay levels back home.

The second issue, with which the contractors are clearly seeking to embarrass the authorities, is whether or not there really are Saudis out there, who want to do relatively menial or mundane jobs such as truck driving or construction work. This paper carried a report earlier this year from farmers who were deeply concerned that they could no longer find Saudis prepared to take on jobs as farm laborers. The inference here is clearly that there are not many Saudis who are prepared to break into a sweat at work. This is almost certainly a travesty.

The problem however may lie elsewhere. According to one employer recently, Saudis, especially young people, who have received even a good basic education, have become used to seeing foreigners doing jobs that involve physical labor outdoors. They have become accustomed to living in a benign air-conditioned world. They would rather have a job with a desk and a phone and not a lot to do. Yet, this characterization is clearly unfair, not least because it ignores our proud past when Saudis lived and flourished in a world that made tough physical demands on everybody.

Maybe the Labor Ministry should meet this challenge from employers, head on. It should launch a drive that appeals to the pride, as well as the pockets of the unemployed. The ministry should invite the jobless to prove that a Saudi worker is every bit as good, if not sometimes better than a foreign worker. They should be encouraged to take on tough, challenging manual work, not just for their own self-esteem and the prosperity of their families, but because the Kingdom needs them to do this, to right the demographic imbalance of expatriate workers, which currently distorts the job market. Government ministries know who the jobless are, not least because they are benefiting from carefully targeted social and unemployment support. The “Work Pride” campaign, for want of a better title, could not only be focused on the currently jobless, but also on the wider public. We all need to be celebrating that fact from among the ten percent of Saudis who are at present without work, there will emerge a substantial number of people who are prepared to take up the challenge of demanding physical jobs, until now undertaken by expatriates.

Their bluff called, employers would end up having to pay higher salaries to their Saudi staff than they have to their foreign workers. But at least they would have avoided the fines and arguments with the Ministry of Labor. Moreover, society in the Kingdom will have benefited overall.