Saudi Gazette report

JEDDAH — The Saudi job market will have more than 350,000 new opportunities in the near future, according to the General Authority of Statistics.

There will be 38,000 vacancies for Saudis and 67,000 vacancies for foreigners in the food, commercial and housing sectors, Al-Madina newspaper reported quoting GaStat figures.

The industrial sector will have 23,000 job vacancies for Saudis and 32,000 vacancies for foreigners.

Future vacancies for Saudis in the construction industry will be around 11,000 while the sector will employ 53,000 foreigners. The entertainment industry will employ about 750 Saudis and an equal number of foreigners.

The average salary for Saudi men last year was SR8,388 and for Saudi women SR4,939 while it was SR2,679 for non-Saudi men and SR4,737 non-Saudi women.

The GaStat report also showed that the rate of unemployment among Saudi women dropped to 30.9 percent during the first quarter of 2018. The rate was 31 percent in the first quarter of 2017.

The contribution of Saudi enterprises to the GDP has increased from 41.86 percent to 41.89 percent.

The report also stated that unemployment among Saudi men increased incrementally to reach 7.6 percent in the first quarter of 2018 when it was 6.1 percent a year ago. The general rate of unemployment has been 12.9 percent for the past 15 years.

The total number of job seekers reached 1.07 million in the first quarter of 2018 when it was 1.08 million last year.

The rate of Saudi men seeking jobs reached 16.1 percent and the rate Saudi women seeking jobs 83.9 percent.