Saudi Arabia tries to tackle unemployment

RIYADH, May 4 (Gulf News): Much to the credit of the Saudi authorities, the kingdom stands out for the regular release of details concerning unemployment numbers. Not all of Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries are as forthcoming as Saudi Arabia with regards to the commitment to bring out such vital stats on a sustained basis.

Official data from the Central Department of Statistics and Information put the unemployment rate in Saudi Arabia at 5.5 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2013, down from 5.6 per cent in the third quarter.

However, these are inclusive of foreign nationals working in Saudi Arabia, which is home to some eight million workers or almost double the size of the local workforce. The majority comes from south Asia, notably India, and southeast Asia, like the Philippines, as well as Egypt, whose nationals have the advantage of knowing Arabic.

By definition, there ought to be zero unemployment among foreign nationals, as they are contract workers for specific jobs. Anyway, the jobless rate for expatriates stands at a mere 0.2 per cent of the total expatriate workforce and therefore statistically insignificant. The unemployment rate for locals stood at 11.5 per cent by end 2013. Worse, the figure was as high as 32 per for Saudi females excluding those electing to be not regarded as part of the workforce.

Trouble is the authorities include foreign nationals when talking about total jobless rate, and accordingly distort the stats. The number of unemployed should be divided by the size of local force in order to make proper statistical inferences.

The fact that Saudi Arabia ranks second only to the US with regards to amount of outflow of remittances tells a great deal about the extent of foreign nationals working in the kingdom. Remittances stood at nearly $30 billion in 2012.