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Saudi Labor market has structural problems, says minister

April 19, 2017

Riyadh, Apr 19: Ahmed Al-Humaidan, deputy minister of labor and social development, said the labor market is going through a pivotal stage and has structural problems that have accumulated over the past 40 years.

labormarketSaudi Arabia has a large number of students graduating from university and they must have the stamina to go through the line of professional work, he said, according to Okaz newspaper while speaking at the International Higher Education Conference in Riyadh on Thursday.

He said the ministry is working through mechanisms that are agreed upon within the national transformation program including the balance between education graduates and the labor market.

The ministry said earlier that it aimed to reduce the unemployment rate from 12.1 percent to 9 percent, and boost the percentage of women in the workforce to 29 percent by 2020 through its Nitaqat nationalization program.

The program seeks to increase the number of Saudis in the labor market through changing the Saudization percentage, which companies are required to maintain.

High percentage of Saudization in a given entity in turn qualifies that entity to obtain a range of incentives by the Human Resources Development Fund (HRDF or HADAF).

Establishments that offer good packages to Saudis are eligible for HRDF support programs based on their accomplishment of the required points which are calculated under the “guided support program.”

These include nationalization rate, average wage of Saudis, percentage of Saudi female staff, job stability and percentage of Saudis with high salaries.

A recent report by the General Authority for Statistics showed women represented 80.6 percent of registered job seekers, indicating a problem in accommodating a qualified female workforce in both public and private sectors.

The report showed that women continue to search for jobs up to the age of retirement; given that 3,488 women ages 57 to 66 were still registered as job seekers. There were only 167 male job seekers in the same age group.

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Agencies
June 18,2020

Riyadh, Jun 18: Minister of Tourism Ahmed Al-Khateeb said that Saudi Arabia will resume tourist activities at the end of Shawwal (June 21) after a hiatus of more than three months due to lockdown measures imposed following the outbreak of coronavirus pandemic.

The minister made the remarks during a television interview after chairing the emergency meeting of the Arab Ministerial Council for Tourism on Wednesday. He said that the current indications are positive and that the Kingdom is ready to launch the summer program, which will be a boost for domestic tourism.

“It was revealed in a research study carried out by the Tourism Authority that 80 percent of Saudi citizens want to take advantage of domestic tourism. We will launch the domestic tourism program for the public after having made necessary coordination with the Ministry of Health and the concerned higher authorities,” he said.

Several Arab tourism ministers and officials of the relevant organizations attended the meeting, which discussed the challenges that the region’s tourism sector is facing due to the pandemic. Al-Khateeb pointed out that the Arab Ministerial Council for Tourism, headed by Saudi Arabia, held the virtual session in exceptional circumstances to discuss ways to get out of this pandemic and revitalize the tourism sector.

“Saudi Arabia has initiated a package of financial stimulus activities with a total value of more than $61 billion to protect jobs and businesses and reduce the economic burden of the crisis. The domestic tourism sector has benefited from it as one of the important economic sectors, as it covered 60 percent of salaries of Saudi employees in the private sector for a period of three months,” he added.

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News Network
April 29,2020

Dubai, Apr 29: Saudi Arabia reported 1,325 new cases of coronavirus, bringing the total number of infections in the country to 21,402, the Ministry of Health announced on Wednesday (April 28).

Meanwhile, the ministry reported 169 recoveries today, with total recoveries in the kingdom at 2,953. There are 125 cases in intensive care.

The ministry also confirmed 5 deaths, bringing the total number of deaths in the kingdom to 157.

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News Network
April 25,2020

Riyadh, Apr 25: Saudi Arabia announced nine deaths and 1,197 new cases of the COVID-19 virus on Saturday.

Of these cases, 120 were recorded in Madinah, 364 in Makkah, 271 in Jeddah, 170 in Riyadh and 43 in Dammam.

The number of people who had recovered from the coronavirus in the Kingdom increased to 2,214 after 165 patients were reported to have recovered.

A total of 136 people have died of the disease in the Kingdom so far.

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