SAUDI UNEMPLOYMENT RISES IN Q1, 234,000 FOREIGN WORKERS LEAVE JOBS

Saudi Arabia saw unemployment among citizens rise in the first quarter despite more than 234,000 foreign workers leaving their jobs, according to labour data published in July.

A General Authority for Statistics report showed that the number of employed non-Saudis decreased from 10.417 million in the fourth quarter of 2017 to 10.183 million in the first quarter of 2018.

During the same period, the number of employed Saudis also decreased 13,437 from 3.163 million to 3.150 million.

This meant the kingdom's overall workforce shrank from 13.581 million to 13.333 million, while Saudi unemployment increased from 12.8 per cent to 12.9 per cent. The figures may have made tough reading for Saudi authorities, which had hoped Saudisation measures including a SAR300 or SAR400 ($80-107) monthly fee for each foreign worker a private sector company employs would boost recruitment of Saudi nationals.

More than 277,000 expats left their jobs in the kingdom in the fourth quarter of last year ahead of the measure's implementation on January 1.

Foreign workers have also been hit by a SAR100 ($26.66) monthly fee for each of their dependent family members introduced in July last year. This and the foreign worker fee on companies are set to increase by SAR100 annually until 2020. The new fees and charges have been combined with a wider drive from the labour ministry to decrease Saudi unemployment by barring foreigners from some sectors.