Dr. Mazen Balilah Al-Madinah newspaper HAFIZ was instrumental in changing many of our wrong perceptions about the unemployed in the Kingdom. Those who applied for unemployment benefits under the program reached 2 million. The number of beneficiaries exceeded 1.16 million. During Ramadan, this number rose to 1.365 million. This was after the Labor Ministry's recent announcement that it was successful in employing 250,000 young Saudi men and women during this year. When an unemployed youth applies for the Hafiz allowance, he has to provide all the details about himself. These included certificates of secondary school, Bachelor's and Master's degrees as well as doctoral degrees. The database of applicants also includes other details such as their regions, native places, phone numbers, and those who refuse to take up jobs. Such information enables the authorities to take initiatives aimed at improving the efficiency and skills of the applicants. Recently, some young jobseekers criticized the Hafiz program even though it contained competence tests for the applicants. There are provisions in the bylaw to stop allowances for those beneficiaries who refuse to take up at least three suitable job offers or do not complete the training courses, including distant training programs, successfully or fail to appear for personal interviews with employers. Of the total 1.16 million Hafiz beneficiaries, 86 percent are women. If all of them were appointed to fill government jobs, nearly 900,000 jobless women would be employed and we would have a government sector run by women. If they were employed in the private sector, we would have a women's private sector because the total number of Saudis in this sector does not exceed one million. We know well that Hafiz creates some family problems. When young married women who were confined to their homes earlier get jobs, their husbands see it as an opportune means of livelihood. And there are some fathers who grab their daughters' salaries before these young women had a chance to spend them. The period of Hafiz allowance is 12 months. Unemployment will not come to an end within 12 months or even within 12 years. Let Hafiz continue successfully as part of the national economic policy because there should be independent revenue sources for young Saudi jobseekers. This could be at the expense of the foreign workforce because their presence is perceived to be one of the reasons for unemployment among Saudis. The Labor Ministry's plan should be focused on reducing the number of foreigners rather than increasing them. From this reduction, we have to reassess the unemployment problem. A daughter who lives with her family or a married young woman is not actually counted as unemployed because Islam makes it mandatory on men to sustain their women. There may be some exceptions to this.
