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Saudi jobless rate down to 11.7%: Nitaqat pays off

February 16, 2015

Jeddah, Feb 16: The Nitaqat nationalization program was successful in bringing down the Kingdom’s unemployment rate to 11.7 percent — 5.9 percent among men and 32.5 percent among women, said the Central Department of Statistics and Information (CDSI).

Saudi joblessIn a statement issued on Sunday, the department put the total number of unemployed Saudis at 650,000, including 258,000 men and 392,000 women.

The department, which comes under the Ministry of Economy and Planning, said reports on unemployment rate in the Kingdom published by some newspapers and other media organizations were not correct.

It emphasized that the Labor Ministry has been supporting the statistics issued by the department in the previous years.

Referring to the statistics issued by the Human Resource Development Fund (HRDF), the CDSI said those figures are related to people who have registered with its Hafiz program to get unemployment benefits.

“Those figures do not represent the number of unemployed Saudis in any way,” the department insisted. “Neither the Labor Ministry nor HRDF and CDSI have published these figures as unemployment indicators,” it added.

A previous report said the unemployment rate among Saudi women in 2013 was 34 percent and among men 6.2 percent. A manpower expert attributed the increase in unemployment rate among women to high percentage of fresh graduates and lack of new job opportunities suitable for them.

The Labor Ministry intends to launch the third phase of Nitaqat on April 20 to create more jobs for Saudis in the private sector.

The Nitaqat helped employ 750,000 Saudis in the private sector until the end of the Hijrah year 1435, showing 15.6 percent rise in Saudization during the year.

Saudi bloggers did not agree with the department’s figures and said the unemployment rates among men and women are much higher. “The total number of unemployed Saudis will be more than a million,” said one blogger while another said the figure would cross six million.

Another blogger pointed out that 1.5 million Saudi men and women have been registered with Hafiz program to receive unemployment allowance, questioning the CDSI statistics. “I think the unemployed in remote villages may not have been counted by CDSI,” said another blogger.

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Agencies
April 2,2020

Ankara, Apr 2: Saudi Arabia on Thursday declared a 24-hour lockdown in all parts of Makkah and Medina cities as part of measures to stem the spread of the coronavirus.

"The 24-hour curfew will be imposed in all parts of the cities of Makkah and Medina, with a ban on entry and exit from both cities," the Saudi Interior Ministry said on Twitter.

The lockdown starts from Thursday “until further notice.”

All commercial activities inside the residential neighborhoods of the two cities were also prohibited, except for pharmacies, food products stores, gas stations and banking services, the ministry said.

After first appearing in Wuhan, China last December, the virus has spread to at least 180 countries and regions, according to U.S.-based Johns Hopkins University.

Its data shows the number of confirmed cases worldwide have surpassed 962,900, with the death toll over 49,100 and more than 202,700 recoveries.

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Agencies
February 16,2020

Al-Jawf, Feb 16: At least 31 people were killed and 12 others were injured here in the al-Maslub district in airstrikes by the Saudi-UAE-led military coalition on Saturday.

"Preliminary field reports indicate that as many as 31 civilians were killed and 12 others injured in strikes that hit al-Hayjah area of the al-Maslub district in al-Jawf governorate," said a statement from the office of the UN resident coordinator and humanitarian coordinator for Yemen.

According to Al Jazeera, the airstrike was conducted hours after the Yemeni Houthis said that they downed a Saudi fighter jet in the same region.

Commenting on the air raids, Lise Grande, the UN's humanitarian coordinator for Yemen, said: "We share our deep condolences with the families of those killed and we pray for the speedy recovery of everyone who has been injured in these terrible strikes."

"So many people are being killed in Yemen - it's a tragedy and it's unjustified. Under international humanitarian law, parties that resort to force is obligated to protect civilians," Grande was quoted as saying.

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News Network
April 20,2020

Riyadh, Apr 20: Six more people have died in Saudi Arabia after contracting coronavirus as 1,122 new coronavirus cases were reported on Monday.

The Saudi health ministry said that total number of cases in the Kingdom had increased to 10,484. It also recorded 92 new recoveries, raising the total to 1,490.

The ministry said precautionary measures shall remain to limit the virus spread.

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