Saudi Gazette report

Riyadh — More than 94,000 expat workers left Saudi Arabia in the third quarter of 2017, according to the General Authority for Statistics (GaStat).

The number of expat workers in the private and public sectors was 10.79 million in Q2 compared to 10.6 million in Q3, a decline of approximately 94,390 workers between July and September.

At the same time, a total of 509,180 work visas were issued during Q3 of 2017. The government sector issued 22.3% visas and the private sector 39.9%. Some 37.8% visas were issued to recruit domestic workers, the report noted.

Expatriates are leaving because of the imposition of dependents fees and foreign workers levies.

The GaStat Q3 labor report also said that the overall unemployment rate among Saudis has fallen 5.8% compared with the second quarter.

The report indicates that the unemployment rate among Saudis showed signs of stability at 12.8% despite an increase in the number of new jobseekers.

The overall unemployment rate among women also fell to 21.1% in the third quarter compared with the previous quarter when it stood at 22.9%. There were 1,231,549 Saudi jobseekers during the period. These included 190,822 men and 1,040,727 women.

The largest number of jobseekers belonged to the age group of 25-29, with a percentage of 31.3. About 45.8% of jobseekers were holders of university degrees.

According to the report, young men and women make up around 36.7% of Saudi population. It showed that around 54.8% of the population is involved in economic activities, of these 78.4% are men and 19.9% women.