When the economy of an advanced country experiences rising inflation, the government of that country steps in and implements monetary and financial policies to mitigate the economic effects. If, for example, stagnation hits the market and unemployment rises, the country immediately implements expansionist policies to control stagnation and unemployment. In the Kingdom and Gulf countries, the situation is different. Our economies rely heavily on only one resource, which is oil. If the price of oil increases, government spending increases. If the price plummets, then public spending will be cut while unemployment rates rise and the performance of the private sector gets worse. The current overview of the Kingdom's economy indicates that it has entered a phase of stagnation. According to the Ministry of Finance's statement, overall growth registered only 1.6 percent at the end of 2016, compared to an average global growth of 3.1 percent. The private sector registered a slight growth of 0.11 percent. Perhaps the biggest challenge the Ministry of Labor and Social Development is facing is the challenge of reducing unemployment. The General Authority for Statistics latest report showed that unemployment reached 12.1 percent at the end of the third quarter of 2016. There are other challenges facing the ministry such as the rising number of college graduates, both male and female, who search for jobs in the private sector as the public sector has stopped recruiting. It is difficult to create job opportunities in such conditions. The ministry should not wait until the current situation changes, or the education system improves and young men and women start to focus on specializations that are in demand in the market. It should not expect that the private sector will soon improve. The more it delays in taking action, the more difficult the problem will become. Moreover, once the Commission of Small and Medium-Scale Enterprises (CSME) begins to perform its tasks, it will only take in one or two percent of the unemployed. This will take between three to five years. However, it seems that the next two years will be very tough for small- and medium-scale enterprises due to the increase in wages and the rising fees imposed on businesses. Regarding unemployment, it appears that the ministry's Nitaqat program has not succeeded in reducing unemployment. In fact, the number of fake Saudization cases has risen with companies resorting to this stratagem to get more recruitment visas. Not renewing the contracts of expatriate workers and sending them back home means just one thing: more Saudis will lose their jobs because of the stagnation in the national economy. In my humble opinion, the ministry should adopt the following procedures. Firstly, Article 77 of the Labor Law which allows companies to dismiss Saudi employees should be temporarily suspended; the Saudization percentage for all sectors except contracting should be increased to 15-20 percent and certain sectors should be restricted to only Saudis and no expatriate worker should be allowed to work in these sectors, just as the ministry did with the telecommunications sector. Twenty sectors should be completely Saudized within four years. Furthermore, the Human Resources Fund should contribute more to the salaries paid to Saudis and the current contribution should be increased to 60-70 percent instead of paying only half salaries for small- and medium-scale enterprises and the Job Creation Commission should begin coordinating with the pertinent authorities to create job opportunities. Additionally, the implementation of major projects, such as trains, airports, the King Abdullah Financial District, etc., should be expedited as these projects will absorb a large number of job seekers. Finally, public agencies should allow their staff members to start their own projects without losing their current positions which would create more job opportunities and families should be encouraged to start their own projects and the pertinent authorities should support them in doing so.
