BURAIDAH — Expatriates are dominating the private sector labor market with 8.9 million expat workers against 1.8 million Saudis who represent only about 16.7 percent of the labor force in this sector. According to data released by the Ministry of Labor and Social Development, the workforce in the private sector is made up of 10.7 million of whom only 1.8 million are Saudis. The ministry said that Saudis have the upper hand in the public sector which is employing 3.4 million of them against 500,000 expatriates. The data, issued in March and made available on Monday, said that Saudis constitute about 35 percent of the entire workforce in both the public and private sector. It said the ratio of women workers in the private sector is also low as their representation is about 30 percent. According to the data, the GDP generated by the public sector represents about 17 percent against 83 percent for the private sector. It said the energy sector has topped all other sectors in the ratio of Saudization of jobs constituting 77.9 percent against 2.9 percent for agriculture which had the lowest ratio of job nationalization. Hail topped all regions in the number of women working in the private sector with 43 percent. Meanwhile, the ministry spotted 966 violations to its decision banning work under the sun during the period June 15 to July 27. The ministry's undersecretary Fahd Al-Owaidi said a total of 829 establishments in all regions have violated the ban.
