Saudi Gazette report

RIYADH — The National Labor Observatory (NLO.sa) and the Saudi Labor Market Indices with the objective of further boosting Saudization and regulating labor market was launched in Riyadh on Thursday.

The launch was made in the presence of Minister of Labor and Social Development Ahmed Al-Rajhi, Minister of Education Hamad Al-Sheikh, Minister of Communications and Information Technology Abdullah Al-Swaha, Deputy Minister of Civil Service Abdullah Al-Molafi, Deputy Minister of Labor Abdullah Abuthunain, and Director General of the Human Resources Development Fund (HADAF) Muhammad Al-Sudairy, at a ceremony held at HADAF headquarters.

Speaking on the occasion, Al-Sudairy said HADAF has been working, in partnership with a number of government and private entities, to support and empower Saudi citizens in the job market through making available of training and employment programs and initiatives so as to enable them to take up jobs in a productive and stable work environment.

He noted that the portal aims at diagnosing and studying the challenges of the labor market in order to boost regulating and developing the market and raise its efficiency and performance so as to create appropriate employment opportunities for Saudis.

Al Sudairy said the NLO.sa would contribute to the strategic transformation by providing data and information about the major topics pertaining to the labor market in the Kingdom.

“The strategic objectives of the Observatory include provision of accurate and reliable data to all stakeholders, supplying analysis and insights to business partners, to build a network of experts and professionals to meet the challenges of the labor market, and to manage and disseminate knowledge.”

Al-Sudairy stated that the major products of the Observatory at present, and in future, include construction of Saudi labor market indices, as well as their definition and formulation of equations, which are concerned with indices from subscribers of social insurance in the private sector, as well as that of job stability, hiring of Saudi graduates, and the firms that come under Nitaqat Saudization program.

The Observatory would work on a research program in collaboration with the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University to promote applied research in building evidence-based labor market programs and policies and identify appropriate intervention mechanisms for their development.