Abu Dhabi: Saudi Arabia’s National Labour Observatory of the Human Resources Development Fund Hadaf has revealed that the rate of Saudisation in the private sector increased in Q4 2020 to 21.8 per cent of the total private sector workers, compared to 20.9 per cent in Q4 2019.
The figure has steady risen since 2015, when Saudis made up 17 per cent of the workforce.
The number of Saudi subscribers from the private sector in social insurance in Q4 last year was nearly 1.75 million, of whom 65.6 per cent were men, and 34.4 per cent were women, the statistics showed.
The Eastern Region achieved the first place in job localisation with a rate of 25.3 per cent, followed by Riyadh with 22.5 per cent, then Mecca region 21.4 per cent, Medina 19.2 per cent, and Asir at 17.6 per cent.
A large percentage of the Saudi workforce is employed in the oil and mining industry.
The population of Saudi Arabia in 2019 is estimated to be at 34.14 million, of whom more than 30 per cent or 10,736,293 people are expats. Nearly a quarter of this are Syrians fleeing the war in their country.
Indians are the second most numerous diaspora in the country. There are 1.54 million Indians in Saudi Arabia with most of them employed in the hospitality and mining industries.
There has been a steady increase in Saudisation in the private sector over the last three years.
The percentage of Saudis rose to 20.37 of the total workforce in the private sector in Q1 2020, compared to 20.21 per cent in Q1 2019. The percentage of Saudisation in the private sector was 18.61 in 2018. The observatory noted that there had been a fluctuation in the percentage of Saudisation over the previous years with 16.46 per cent in 2017, 16.79 per cent in 2016, 17.14 percent in 2015 and 15.63 percent in 2014.
Finance and insurance were the highest economic activities where the highest level of Saudisation (83.01 per cent) was achieved in the private sector. This was followed by activities of international organisations (70.71 per cent), mining and quarries (61.95 per cent), education (52.86 per cent) and information and communications (48.81 per cent).
