Cairo: Saudi Arabia has allowed hiring female drivers as part of new professions permitted for recruitment via an official e-platform designated for domestic labour.
In 2018, the kingdom allowed women to drive for the first time in its history, ending a decades-old ban on female driving.
The Saudi Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development said on Twitter the new jobs can be recruited via its e-platform Musaned as part of efforts to develop the domestic labour sector and meet needs in the country.
These jobs also include a personal care worker, a home guard, a private tutor, a private tailor, a house manager, a home farmer, a home coffee-maker, a home attendant, a private speech and hearing specialist, a personal assistant and a support worker.
As part of its efforts to regulate the labour market, the Saudi Ministry of Human Resources has set up the Musaned platform to help clients learn about their rights and duties, and related services including visa issuance, recruitment requests and contractual relation between the employer and the worker.
The ministry has made the contracting process obligatory via the Musaned, being the official recruitment platform in the kingdom.
The number of domestic workers in Saudi Arabia reached 3.5 million in the third quarter of last year, an increase of nearly 193,000 against the second quarter of the same year, a local newspaper reported last January.
The increase is the highest since the final quarter of 2019 when an increase of 464,000 was recorded, Al Eqtisadiah said in a report based on official figures.
The Q3 rise in domestic labour in 2022 was mainly due to an increase in numbers of house servants and cleaning workers who reached 155,000 people during the three months, the report said.
