‘Saudisation’ sparks shortage of salesmen at Riyadh gold souq
Many Saudis, accustomed to cradle-to-grave welfare system, regard such jobs as degrading
ARiyadh gold souq festooned with glittering jewellery has run short of salesmen after a government edict to replace foreign workers with Saudis, part of contentious efforts to tackle high unemployment.
The kingdom has long relied on foreign labour for jobs in sales and services, both for skills and cost, but these positions are increasingly being reserved for Saudi workers.
The problem is that many Saudis, long accustomed to a generous cradle-to-grave welfare system that has been scaled back, regard such jobs as degrading.
In the capital’s labyrinthine Tiba gold market, the widening policy known as Saudisation has upended businesses.
Some gold shops have shut down and others are struggling amid a shortage of skilled Saudi labour after the government enforced “100 per cent Saudisation” in December.
“Saudis are new to this kind of job and they need to gain experience,” said Saudi shopowner Fayez Al Hardi, who has brought in male relatives to temporarily replace a handful of skilled Yemeni salesmen he had to let go.
Multiple shopkeepers in Tiba and another Riyadh gold souq visited by AFP are struggling to recruit nationals amid what they call a misplaced sense of entitlement.
Many Saudis are unwilling to work long hours and early shifts and even those without experience demand more than double the wage of skilled foreigners.
“This is killing our business,” another jewellery shopowner said, showing AFP a pile of resumes of recruited Saudis. The best among them, he said, lasted only two days.
Saudisation is part of a major retooling of the kingdom’s lagging oil economy, aimed at jump-starting private sector jobs in order to wean citizens off government largesse and decrease the public wage bill.
A struggle to adapt
Saudi media frequently laud a new crop of nationals who are for the first time working as car mechanics, Uber drivers and gas station workers, jobs that were long deemed worthy only for blue-collar foreign workers.
Some observers liken the Saudi struggle to adapt to an age of austerity to that of an obese man, disfigured from decades of gluttony and idleness, forced to go on a crash diet. But adapt it must.
In a country where half the population is under 25, government statistics show the youth unemployment rate hovers around 40 per cent — a potential powder keg.
Saudisation has stirred heated debates on social media, with supporters of the policy demanding a fair chance to compete with non-Saudis while bitterly attacking online job postings that seek skilled workers from South Asia and elsewhere. But aggressive Saudisation is not driving down joblessness, experts say.
“Employers say young Saudi men and women are lazy and not interested in working,” columnist Mohammad Bassnawi wrote in Saudi Gazette newspaper in December, demanding an end to “fake Saudisation”.
“The solution to unemployment does not lie in Saudisation... We first have to change the perception that young Saudi men and women have about work.”