Ehsan Buhulaiga
Al-Youm
Developing a job for every unemployed citizen is difficult. Although the number of job seekers is small in comparison to the number of expatriate workers, it would be harder still if the unemployment rate among Saudis were to increase to over 12 percent, especially since the number of Saudi job seekers is no more than 10 percent of the number of expatriates in the Kingdom. In terms of qualifications, the majority of unemployed Saudis are university graduates, 59 percent to be exact.
This brings us back to the question: How can we link job seekers to the job market? How can we employ unemployed Saudi men and women? The method adopted since the quinquennial plans started paying attention to unemployment involves replacing expatriates with Saudis. This method has been selected since the economy is unable to create enough jobs to employ unemployed Saudis.
The “replacement” method has been in vogue for almost 20 years now. It seems to be a reasonable solution but it has not been properly implemented. It is based on a gradual increase in the number of Saudis employed in the labor market. How can we properly control unemployment? We need to ask whether replacement is the proper way forward?
Since the announcement of Saudi Vision 2030, it has become more urgent to find a solution to this problem and offer Saudi citizens suitable jobs. How can we make our economy, particularly the private sector, employ more citizens? Actually, the private sector is at a crossroads in terms of employment. Employing more expatriates is now difficult as a result of the increase in fees after the Fiscal Balance Program 2020 that imposes increasing fees on expatriate workers and their dependents. Employing Saudi men and women is now less costly.
There is, however, still a gap that needs to be bridged. We need certain expatriates, i.e., experts and professionals. Instead of recruiting recently graduated expatriate employees who have no real experience, we should recruit the ones who have real experience and are professionals.
This is what our economy is lacking. We need those who can train our youth and develop our human capital. We should offer special incentives to recruit experts. Perhaps, that will achieve the diversification that our national economy needs.
