Unemployment in Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia is the largest of all the Middle East countries and the world’s main oil producer. Despite this form of reputation, the country faces numerous unemployment challenges. The massive unemployment problem started to be experienced after Saudization in 1975. Saudization is the replacement of foreign workers with Saudi nationals in private sector and the official national policy of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The government established a strategy to replace foreign expatriates with local workers. However, this strategy did not fully solve the unemployment problem in Saudi Arabia because unemployment remains one of the topics of concern to the government (Bosbait and Rodney 533). There are various reasons why I argue that the unemployment in Saudi Arabia is rampant and the aim of this essay is to argue why the unemployment became such a problem in Saudi Arabia (Jasim 2).
To support my argument, I consider the labor system one of the reasons that caused the unemployment in Saudi Arabia. The Saudi Arabian labor system still relies on the old rules regarding hiring employees. The rules are old and there is need for them to be modified in order to be acceptable in the modern global rules. The Ministry of Labor in Saudi Arabia introduced a new system known as Nitaqat in 2011. Nitaqat is a process designed by the Saudi ministry of labor to boost employment of locals in the private sector. The system requires an increase of at least five percent of Saudis workers annually. However, the system has not modified the old employment structure, which encourages low-cost foreign labor (Jasim 2). The weakness of the Saudi’s economy is the labor market because the locals are paid up to five times more than the foreigners are. This implies that most private companies prefer hiring foreigners, therefore, leaving no opportunities for the Saudis. This explains that after more than four decades since Saudization, most of the employers still have less than 10% of Saudis in their companies. The labor system is also very porous and can be exploited easily. Some employees are also very corrupt, and they have fake records where they have registered foreign employees as Saudis. This is an indication that labor systems in Saudi Arabia have contributed considerably to the unemployment problem (Bosbait and Rodney 533).
Religious conservativeness has led to massive unemployment among women in Saudi Arabia. This is because in Saudi Arabia, the Islamic religion is against unrelated men and women mingling or working together. Additionally, the religion imposes numerous restrictions on the freedom of women to work in various companies (Yaphe 162). Therefore, women integration in the workforce has been overlooked hence the rampant level of unemployment in Saudi. This problem is aggravating because there are very many women graduating from colleges and universities, even though the government of Saudi Arabia has put in place numerous strategies to create job opportunities. The government requires employers to establish gender equality in work places, and it has established strategies to allow women to work from home with the aim of curbing the unemployment problem (Jasim 2).
The education system in Saudi Arabia has failed to provide young people with the appropriate skills and they are not taught the technical courses and subjects that are required in the society. For instance, approximately 80 percent of the college and university students graduate in geography, history, Islamic studies and Arabic literature, while the rest 20 percent graduate in engineering, science and medical schools. The demand of such courses in Saudi Arabia is very low hence leading to high level of unemployment in Saudi Africa (Bosbait and Rodney 533). Various employers are forced to hire foreigners to work in their companies because there are not enough Saudi expatriates. It is because of this fact that the Saudi government has come up with a program known as Hafiz to provide job seekers in Saudi with monthly allowance for up to one year, as they search for jobs and participate in training activities. The unemployed university graduates have started active conversations on social media to sensitize about the increased cost of living, low wages and poor job prospects (Yaphe 162).
Therefore, it is not true that Saudi Arabia is facing the challenge of unemployment because the government has developed various strategies to create jobs for almost every citizen in the country (Rajhi 97).
In another perspective, it is untrue that there is unemployment in Saudi Arabia because if this was true, the country could not be providing jobs to immigrants. Saudi Arabia has provided job opportunities to more than 27 million immigrants. If the country has the capability of offering jobs to the foreigners, how is it possible that it is facing unemployment challenges? If there is any unemployment challenge in Saudi Arabia, the question begs, where do these foreigners get the job opportunities? The report by the IMF (International Monetary Fund) indicates that Saudi Arabia is a major source of income for foreigners from all over the world (Jasim 2). Individuals who lose their jobs in Saudi Arabia are entitled to compensation from the government for up to 12 months. Those who resign from their jobs get income from their own investments (Rajhi 97). This is an indication that even though Saudi Arabia may be viewed as a country facing unemployment challenges the fact is that the country is better placed than most countries in the world. The Saudi government has introduced unemployment insurance to encourage young Saudis to seek for employment in private companies as the government compensates them because of the poor starting salary and lack of other benefits that are enjoyed in the government jobs (Bosbait and Rodney 533).
Even though, contrary opinions regarding unemployment in Saudi Arabia indicate that Saudi Arabia is not facing unemployment challenges, the fact is that there are very many unemployed citizens in Saudi Arabia. The increased level of unemployment has aggravated because there are very many young people graduating from colleges and universities. Unemployment might be the next biggest social challenge in Saudi Arabia in the next few decades because of the entry of thousands of young individuals in the already stretched economy and the sinking oil prices. It is estimated that 1.9 million young people graduating from universities will join the workforce over the next decade. The increased number of citizens who have resorted to private businesses and family businesses is an indication that the government has been unable to provide job opportunities to its citizens (Yaphe 162).
Additionally, despite the country being the main oil producer in the world, it has been unable to provide employment to all its citizens because of various factors. For instance, the Saudi Arabia labor system still relies on the old rules regarding hiring employees. This system encourages corruption and employment of immigrants leaving the Saudis unemployed. It encourages cheap labor from immigrants in private companies, therefore discouraging the Saudis from seeking for employment in such companies. Conservativeness in religion has led to massive unemployment among women in Saudi Arabia. The religion discourages men and women to mingle as long as they are not related to each other. This explains why women who have graduated from universities and colleges cannot be employed, therefore increasing the number of unemployed citizens in Saudi Arabia. The religion also imposes numerous restrictions on the freedom of women to work in various companies hence a high level of unemployment in Saudi Arabia (Yaphe 162).
In conclusion, I am aware with the fact that Saudi Arabia is facing numerous unemployment challenges that the government needs to deal with. If a long-lasting solution is not initiated, the number of unemployed individuals will continue increasing. The existing unemployment problem in Saudi could not be there if the government has taken the right decisions to fight unemployment. It is tough to grasp how a country that has employed 27 million foreigners could be facing unemployment challenges. If the government of Saudi Arabia resolves the policies in the labor system and the education system, it will solve the unemployment problem easily. Additionally, private companies, which employ foreign workers, and religious conservativeness, which denies women the right to employment, should also be dealt with in the right manner.
Works Cited
Rajhi, Ahmed, et al. Economic Development in Saudi Arabia. Durham Modern Middle East and
Islamic World Series Routledge, 2012.
Jasim, Ali. Saudi Arabia’s continuous efforts to tackle unemployment
Jobless rate for locals stood at 11.5% by end of 2013. Gulf News 2014
Bosbait, Mohammed, and Rodney, Wilson. Education, School to Work Transitions and
Unemployment in Saudi Arabia Middle Eastern Studies, 41 (4) (Jul., 2005), pp. 533-545.
Yaphe, Judith. Middle East in 2015. The impact of regional trends on U.S strategic planning. Diane Publishing. 2015.
Last Completed Projects
| topic title | academic level | Writer | delivered |
|---|