RIYADH — More than 73,000 Saudi men and women employed by the private sector have left the labor market last year, local daily Al-Watan reported on Saturday quoting data issued by the General Organization for Social Insurance (GOSI). The organization said more than 44,000 of those who quit the labor market were being paid monthly salaries by Sanid program of the Human Resources Development Fund (Hadaf). It said those who received monthly payments from Sanid to compensate them for their lost salaries represented about 60 percent of the Saudi men and women who quit the labor market during 2018. GOSI said in 2017, as many as 25,648 Saudis benefited from Sanid services representing about 72 percent of those who were assisted by the program in 2017. Sanid started paying compensatory salaries to unemployed Saudis since 2015. Since its inception until last year, the beneficiaries from Sanid reached 46,056 citizens with an increase of 31 percent over their number in 2018 which was 31,737 people. Sanid is protecting Saudis against unemployment. It pays them compensatory monthly salaries until they are employed. It is one of the programs aimed at employing Saudis in the private sector. Those entitled to assistance from Sanid program should be Saudi nationals with no extra private income, should not be 60 or above, able to work, seriously looking for jobs, not fired due to unethical behavior and those not leaving the jobs by their own free will.
