Saudis shy away from the jobs market


Issue 1011 - 04 Mar 2016 | 2 minute read

The unemployment rate edged down to 11.5% in 2015 compared to 11.7% a year before, but only because fewer locals joined the labour force, according to data from the General Authority for Statistics. The figures ought to provoke alarm in government, suggesting that efforts to get more locals into private sector jobs have stalled. There had been a slow but steady rise in both the proportion of Saudis participating in the labour market and the Saudisation rate in the private sector in recent years, but those trends have apparently reversed.

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