Mazin Balilah
THE Ministry of Labor and Social Development and the Department of Central Statistics should reveal the actual number of Saudis who are unemployed and their level of education so that we can plan for the future.
The unemployment data provided for 2015 is well worth studying. Official statistics put the number of unemployed Saudis in 2015 at 682,344, of whom 87 percent were aged 20-34 years with the rest below 15 or over 54 years of age. The majority, therefore, were young men and women.
There are four categories of the unemployed: high school graduates, post-secondary diploma holders, holders of bachelor degrees and holders of masters degrees. The first category constitutes 32 percent of the unemployed while the BA holders account for 49 percent and the diploma holders account for 0.9 percent.
The statistics do not include illiterate persons because the Kingdom has succeeded in eradicating illiteracy. PhD degree holders were not mentioned in the official statistics because all of them were employed by Saudi universities, thanks to the efforts of the Ministry of Civil Service.
Based on these results, it is clear that universities must change their plans. Instead of taking in more students in undergraduate programs, they should focus on post-secondary programs that are in great demand in the local market. Some universities can change and become institutes that provide only technical and vocational programs.
