Saudi Gazette report

RIYADH — The Human Resources Development Fund (HADAF) has extended support to hire as many as 143,000 Saudi men and women in the private sector establishments during the first quarter of 2025 and this figure showed a jump of 93 percent compared to the same period last year.

The HADAF said in a statement that the number of beneficiaries of the training, empowerment, and guidance services and programs, carried out by the Fund, during the first quarter of this year reached 1.18 million, a growth rate of 4 percent compared to the first quarter of last year.

The number of establishments that benefited from the HADAF support programs during the same period exceeded 98,000 in various sectors of the labor market across the Kingdom. This number recorded a growth rate of 37 percent compared to the same period last year, of which 93 percent were medium, small, and micro enterprises. The total amount spent by HADAF on training, empowerment, and guidance support programs during the first quarter amounted to SR1.83 billion.

HADAF Director General Turki Al-Jawini said that the Fund works in effective partnership with various government and private sector entities to support and empower Saudi men and women to obtain job opportunities in the labor market. "The Fund has witnessed many transformations stemming from our leadership's commitment to investing in human capital," he said.

Al-Jawini indicated that there has been remarkable growth in the number of Saudi individuals and private sector establishments that benefited from the Fund's training, empowerment, and guidance support services and programs. This is part of the Fund's efforts to meet the changing demands and requirements of the labor market and improve its efficiency.

This is after taking into account the needs and priority economic sectors, and developing training, empowerment, and career guidance support programs targeting national cadres, in line with achieving the goals of Saudi Vision 2030 and the Labor Market Strategy.