RIYADH — A total of 400,000 Saudis and foreigners quit the Saudi employment market in the second quarter of 2020 that coincided with the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic. These include 116,000 Saudis and 284,000 foreigners, according to a recent report of the General Authority for Statistics (GaStat), a copy of which was seen by Okaz/Saudi Gazette. The report revealed that more than 53,000 male and female Saudis submitted their resignations during the April-June period while more than 36,000 contracts of Saudis expired during the same period. According to the report, more than 11,000 Saudi men and women have had their work contracts terminated under Article 80 of the Labor Law, bringing the total number of Saudis who left their work during the second quarter to more than 116,000 male and female workers. The report showed that more than 284,000 non-Saudi male and female workers left their jobs during the second quarter, of whom 60,000 workers tendered their resignation. GaStat noted that there has been an increase in the unemployment rate of Saudis reaching 15.4 percent compared to the first quarter of 2020 when it stood at 11.8 percent. The total number of workers in the Kingdom decreased by 0.03 percent in the second quarter reaching 13.63 million employees, while compared with 13.635 million employees in the first quarter of 2020, a decrease of 5,000 employees within three months. The total number of Saudi employees dropped to 3.17 million by the end of the second quarter, as compared to 3.203 million in the previous quarter. The number of Saudi male workers reached about 2.055 million, down from 2.066 million workers in the first quarter, and the number of Saudi female workers decreased to 1.115 million, compared to 1.136 million in the first quarter of this year.
