Riyadh: Unemployment among Saudi women rose to an alarming rate of 60.6 per cent, according to a new report of the Ministry of Economy and Planning. “The number of unemployed Saudis is put at 4.45 million. Of these women make up 60.6 per cent,” the report said.
The report was released on the eve of the Seventh National Forum for Dialogue, which is to discuss various aspects of unemployment problem. The theme of this year’s forum, which began in Buraida on Monday, is “Labour sectors and employment: A dialogue between society and labour institutions.”
According to organisers, the Buraida event will be a great opportunity for government officials in the labour sector to listen first hand to the problems of employment from the participants.
The ministry’s report showed that there has been an alarming increase in the percentage of unemployment even among the educated young Saudi men and women. “The workforce in Saudi Arabia accounted for 8.2 million last year, of which Saudi men constituted 40.9 per cent while women’s percentage was only 8.1.
As for expatriates, men make up 43 per cent while the remaining 7.3 per cent are women,” the report said. The female labour participation rate was extremely low in the kingdom as there will be little growth in government hiring, and the private sector is overwhelmingly dominated by foreign workforce. Saudi women comprise 55 per cent of graduates but make up only 5 per cent of the workforce in the Kingdom.
However, Abdul Rahman Al Rashid, president of the Council of Saudi Chambers of Commerce and Industry, said that the percentage of Saudi women working in the private sector does not exceed five.
“The number of working Saudi women accounts for 565,000 from among 8.4 million women in the Kingdom,” the Saudi Press Agency quoted him as saying. Implementation sought Al Rashid, who is also president of the Eastern Province Chambers of Commerce and Industry, said the number of women registered for jobs at the chamber reached only 1,405.
According to a statistical report released by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry in 2005, the number of women registered with the chambers in various regions of the kingdom accounts for only over 22,500. Al Rashid called for strict implementation of the regulations issued by the Council of Ministers with regard to providing jobs for qualified Saudi young women as well as to open ladies’ sections at government departments.
By Mariam Al Hakeem, Gulf News
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