The drop-out rate of Saudi employees from private sector companies is estimated at 30 percent within the first three months of their employment, according to Dr. Mansour bin Abdulaziz Al-Mansour, deputy general director of the Human Resources Development Fund (HRDF).

Many of those leaving private sector companies take up government jobs, mostly in the education or the military sector, Al-Mansour told reporters after attending a career and recruitment show at the Al-Faisal University last Thursday.

He said that the HRDF works with both employers of the private sector and job seekers, as they are most powerfully affected by the demand and supply mechanism to a greater extent than government employment arenas. In a bid to keep Saudi employees in the private sector, the HRDF has designed a “serious work reward” to encourage job seekers to shift into, and remain within jobs in private sector companies, a reward that may be valued at up to SR24,000, Al-Mansour said.

“The HRDF program has already boosted the nationalization (Saudization) program adopted by the Kingdom, and has enormously contributed to the stability of Saudi workers in their jobs,” he said.

Al-Mansour admitted that there was a partial imbalance between educational output and the requirements of the labor market, but confirmed that the HRDF is working to address this imbalance in coordination with universities and the Ministry of Education.