RIYADH — The unemployment rate in Saudi Arabia remained unchanged at 12.0 percent in the last quarter of 2019 compared to the Q3 of 2019, according to official data released on Monday by the General Authority for Statistics (GASTAT) carried by Saudi Press Agency. According to the survey results, the unemployment rate decreased from 12.9 percent in Q2 of 2018 to 12.0 percent in Q3 of 2019, and settled at this level in Q4 of 2019. The unemployment rate for total population (15 years of age and above) including Saudis and non-Saudis in the Kingdom stood at 5.7 percent, marking a decrease of 0.4 percent compared to the fourth quarter of 2018. Unemployment among Saudi males reached 4.9 percent, registering a decrease of 0.8 percent compared to the third quarter of 2019 whereas the unemployment rate among Saudi females remained unchanged at 30.8 percent. The GASTAT figures also showed rate of participation in the labor force for total population (15+) was 58.8 percent, recording an increase of 2.9 percent compared to Q4 of 2018. The survey results indicated that 64.1 percent of unemployed Saudis are between the ages of 20 to 29. About half of the unemployed Saudis with a percentage of 56.4 percent hold a Bachelor's degree. However, 84.5 percent of Saudi males and 97.9 percent of unemployed Saudi females have never worked before. The results also showed an increase in the economic participation rate of all Saudis, which stood at 46.7 percent in Q4 of 2019, witnessing an increase of 1.1 percent compared to the previous quarter. The rate of participation in the labor force for Saudi males reached 66.6 percent in Q4 of 2019, marking a decrease of 0.4, compared to the previous quarter. The reason for the high rate of participation in the labor force for all Saudis can be attributed to the increase in the rate of Saudi females' participation in the labor force by 2.8, which reached 26.0 percent in Q4 of 2019. The figures are based on the estimates of the labor force survey which is conducted by GASTAT on a quarterly basis as well as the labor market's data from the administrative records of the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development, Human Resources Development Fund, National Information Center, and General Organization for Social Insurance (GOSI).
