Jeddah :  When Abdul Mueen Alessa graduated with a degree in Arabic language three years ago the last thing he expected was a struggle to find a job in Saudi Arabia.

Diploma in hand, Alessa applied for over 22 jobs from teaching to secretarial work across the kingdom only to end up trying the army as salaries offered were too low to make a living for him and his family.

"Foreigners are accepting half the salaries that we can accept. We can barely live on less than 2,000 riyals (Dh1,955) a month," Alessa, 27, said.

Riyadh faces difficulties curbing joblessness as firms favour low-cost labour from Asia or well-paid foreign experts despite state efforts to see more Saudis in private sector jobs.

Unemployment rate

The world's top oil exporter saw its unemployment climb to 10.5 per cent last year from 8.2 per cent in 2000, due in part to a steadily growing pool of young local workforce.

"I don't expect this percentage to change that much ... as long as the government continues to be liberal and open to recruiting human resources from overseas," said Abdul Rahman Al Zamil, chairman of investment firm Al Zamil Group.

Almost 70 per cent of the 18 million native Saudis are under age 30, with their ranks growing 2.4 per cent annually.

The Saudi population jumped by around 21 per cent between 2000 and 2008, while the number of foreigners rose at a similar pace, government estimates show.

Looking to create thousands of new jobs and diversify its economy away from oil, Saudi Arabia launched a $400 billion five-year spending plan in 2008, the largest stimulus relative to gross domestic product among the world's 20 leading nations.

A negative view of unskilled labour among Saudis further increases the kingdom's dependency on foreign workers that many firms prefer to hire as they work long hours for low wages.

Foreign workers

Last year, foreigners employed in the private sector earned 764 riyals on average, while Saudis' pay stood at 3,137 riyals. The gap is much narrower for management positions.

"The problem is in the kind of jobs that are appealing to the Saudis in terms of right salaries, working hours and social image," said Ahmad Al Humaidan, a labour ministry official.

The data show the number of foreigners hired by private firms is nine times higher than that of Saudis, at 6.2 million. Around 0.8 million locals worked in the public sector in 2008.

While campaigns such as "Saudi is for the Saudis" are gaining popularity on the web, officials say a right workforce balance is needed to avoid negative impacts on the economy.

Key points

WHY IS SAUDI ARABIA STRUGGLING TO LOWER UNEMPLOYMENT?

  • Saudi Arabia is dependent on millions of expatriates. With an archaic state education system that focuses more on religion than on preparing students for the job market and technical skills, many Saudis are unable to find a private sector job.
  • Another obstacle is local firms' unwillingness to invest in training Saudis as they can easily get work visas for foreigners who demand less for longer hours than nationals.

CAN SAUDIS GET GOVERNMENT JOBS?

Most find a job in ministries or local authorities but with a population of over 25 million not every Saudi automatically gets a state job as is the case in Kuwait.

The government wants to make the overstaffed bureaucracy more efficient and plans to privatise some state firms such as the national carrier, dumping hopes of some Saudis for a lifetime state job.

WHAT IS THE GOVERNMENT STRATEGY TO FIGHT UNEMPLOYMENT?

In 1994, the government began a "Saudiasation" scheme to enforce the hiring of locals by the private sector by quotas for the minimum number of Saudis private companies must hire.

Diplomats say the system is not very effective and many firms find a way to get around it by splitting up operations in separate smaller entities with smaller quotas.

— Reuters