The Shoura Council’s human resources committee has urged the National Labor Market Observatory to speed up the collection of data that can provide an accurate picture of the market in the country.

It said that these statistics are important for both private and public sector agencies in the Kingdom. The Labor Ministry launched the initiative in 2012. It is meant to be a comprehensive database of 66 key labor market indicators. The initiative would help the government track and understand labor market statistics, performances and outcomes.

It would be a tool for fact-based decision-making by researchers and policy-makers, the ministry had announced. The observatory would help the ministry get an exact picture of job seekers based on information supplied by the education and training sectors, especially the two ministries of education. The ministry said at the time that the Kingdom would have to create 3 million jobs by 2015, and 6 million by 2030.

Meanwhile, the council voted in the same session on the recommendations of the telecommunications, transport and information technology committee on the annual report of the General Shipping Establishment for the financial year 2013/2014.

The council also voted on a memorandum of cooperation between the Islamic affairs ministries of the Kingdom and Bahrain.

The council discussed the report of the economic affairs and energy committee about trading in petrol products and the report of the telecommunications, transport and information technology committee on the annual report of Saudi Post for the financial year 2013/2014.

The council said it would study the report of the human resources committee on the annual report of the labor ministry for the financial year 2013/2014. The committee recommended in its report that there should be regular performance appraisals of public sector employees, and comparisons with other countries.

The council also discussed the report of the energy and economic affairs committee related to the annual report of the Department of Statistics and Information for the financial year 2013/2014, and the report of the financial committee on amendments to the 10th article of the General Audit Bureau.