More than a million Saudis are now receiving unemployment benefit, the Labor Ministry said Wednesday. The “Hafiz” program, which pays unemployed Saudis SR2,000 a month for up to one year, was announced by King Abdullah, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, late last year. “The number of beneficiaries this month rose by 40 percent from last month and by 170 percent from December when the program started to pay the monthly subsidy,” said the official Saudi Press Agency, quoting Khaled Al-Ajmi, the Labor Ministry official in charge of Hafiz. Officially the Kingdom's unemployment rate is 10.5 percent, but that figure does not include the large number of working-age Saudis not counted as part of the labor force. Recent government figures show the labor force participation rate, meaning people who are in jobs or who say they are looking for work, is 36.4 percent, about half the global average, say economists. The head of a parallel unemployment program run by the Labor Ministry said joblessness cost the government SR5.5 billion a year. Around 90 percent of Saudis in work are employed by the government, while 90 percent of jobs in private companies are filled by around eight million foreigners. Expatriates tend to fill higher-paying technical roles for which many Saudis lack the experience, and very low-paying jobs that many Saudis see as menial. In January, Labor Minister Adel Fakieh said the Kingdom needed to create three million jobs for Saudi nationals by 2015 and six million jobs by 2030, partly through the “Saudization” of work now being done by expatriates. Last year Saudi Arabia's economy grew by 6.8 percent, buoyed by strong oil revenues and a government spending spree. There are about 18 million Saudi nationals in the country. More than 80 percent of people receiving unemployment benefit are women, said SPA. The government has initiated measures to push more Saudi women to enter the job market. It has designated women-only working environments including lingerie and cosmetics shops. Those receiving unemployment benefits are added to a new national employment database that lists people seeking work alongside details of their qualifications, education and employment history to help match them with suitable employers. In addition to the Hafiz program, the government has also introduced a new system of quotas for Saudi versus foreign employees, set according to the size and sector of each company. Companies that perform badly in the quota system will be prevented from acquiring visas for new foreign employees. The Labor Ministry has also sponsored career fairs in the Kingdom's largest cities where it vets job seekers before pairing them with potential employers. That initiative is aimed at reassuring private companies, which have traditionally seen imported labor as cheaper and more reliable than Saudi workers, that job candidates will be qualified for any positions on offer.
