By Mohammed Al-Aufi
Makkah
RISE in the unemployment rate among Saudis should not be read as a mere figure. We should look at this indicator from different angles with a comprehensive perspective. We should also review the organizational, social and economic aspects related to unemployment, which also means a lack of jobs and a subsequent increase in the number of jobseekers.
According to statistics published by the General Authority of Statistics, there are at least 917,500 jobseekers, including 177,500 men and 739,900 women with their percentage reaching 19.4 percent and 80.6 percent respectively.
The unemployment rate among Saudis is likely to increase if the existing 917,500 jobseekers did not get suitable jobs.
If we look at organizational level, this figure of unemployed Saudis indicates the failure of the Ministry of Labor and Social Development and other relevant employment agencies in achieving their objective of at least containing the unemployment rate. It also reflects the weakness of the government’s strategy to employ a large number of Saudis in the private sector.
When the Ministry of Labor and Social Development decided to increase the number of Saudi workers in the private sector in 2010, the unemployment rate among Saudis was 9.6 percent. Its plan was to bring down the rate to 5.5 percent in 2014. But the plan failed and the unemployment rate increased continuously reaching the highest level in the fourth quarter of 2016.
The fourth quarter does not coincide with graduation of university students. It is expected that 300,000 students graduate from the Kingdom’s universities in addition to the graduates of new universities. This will definitely increase the number of jobseekers every year. They are likely to remain unemployed due to a lack of new job opportunities in public and private sectors.
The ministry has failed to stop the exploitation of Article 77 of the Labor Law by private companies. The article allows companies to terminate the services of Saudis after paying their dues. As a result, about 50,000 Saudis have lost their jobs in the past six months.
Referring to the socioeconomic impacts of unemployment, I like to underline the growing number of job seekers among women. The number of unemployed Saudi women reached 739,900 with an increase of 300,300 compared to the third quarter when their number was 439,600. This indicates that job opportunities for women were on the decline.
At the same time, 76,500 young men were employed during the same period, bringing down the number of unemployed men to 177,500 in the fourth quarter.
The rate of women jobseekers stood at 80.6 percent in the fourth quarter of 2016. This shows that this group of citizens is mostly unemployed and they don’t receive any new job opportunities. We don’t see any special interest to employ women even though their presence would add value to the national economy.
Unemployment among women is a big national wastage as the government spends billions of riyals on their education and training. The huge amounts spent on women education means their resources should be made use of for economic, social and overall development of the country.
Job opportunities for women should not be restricted to education, health and lingerie shops. Their capabilities must be exploited in other productive areas.
In short, the growing unemployment rate is a shame on the country, especially the Labor and Social Development Ministry. It shows our employment system and Saudization strategies were not effective in realizing their objectives. Our Saudization strategy must be reviewed immediately to make it effective and resolve the unemployment problem.
