Saudi urged to create jobs for women

Saudi Arabia needs to enact legislations to force the private sector to recruit national women to cut female unemployment and allow them to contribute to the domestic economy, a prominent Saudi female intellect has said.

Dr Siham Al Issa, Scholarship Director at the Riyadh-based Princess Noura University, said the Gulf Kingdom’s conservative society needs to be gradually prepared for a wider role by Saudi women in the society and called for equal rights for men and women at work.

“We now need new policies and regulations to overcome the obstacles that are blocking Saudi female graduates from actively contributing to their economy and their society,” she said in a lecture, carried by local newspapers.

“We should adapt to the new changes….unemployment is high among Saudi women and I think it is time that we act to activate the woman’s work in the private sector…this is a fundamental demand and we should work to remove all obstacles facing it by gradually educating the society about such realities.”

Al Issa said Saudi women, who favour working in the public sector for better financial benefits, should be convinced of the need to join the private sector, which in turn should introduce incentives for local women to take up jobs.

“We should create an environment where women will get equal job rights as men…women must feel secure at their work,” she said.

“This should prompt the government to embark on a clear and definite strategy to employ women in the private sector…we have a real jobless problem among women in Saudi Arabia as the unemployment rate is high especially among female graduates who have high degree certificates.”

Al Issa said the government plan to force the private sector to employ more women should be based on what she called a specific ratio.

“This plan, as previous plans, must not be mere ink on paper…it should include incentives in the private sector for national women similar to those in the public sector to encourage them to join jobs in the private sector,” she said.

“At the same time , we should intensify efforts to create public awareness about the importance of women’s work, which has become a national issue…both the public and private sectors have to create job opportunities for Saudi women and ensure they receive equal treatment as men.”

Saudi Arabia, the world’s top oil exporter, has been hit by unemployment because of high population growth rates and volatile oil prices. The rate was officially estimated at just above 10 per cent at the end of 2009.

According to a key Saudi bank, private sector companies in the Kingdom favour non-Saudi employees, who comprised about 90 per cent of the workforce in 2008, up from around 87 per cent in 2006-2007.

“Saudi Arabia’s unemployment rate reached  around 10.5 per cent in 2009, up from 10 per cent a year earlier, as market conditions tightened…. data from the Ministry of Labour indicate the number of foreigners hired by the private sector is nine times higher than that of Saudis,” Banque Saudi Fransi (BSF) said.

Its figures showed foreigners employed in the private sector earned SR764 on average, while Saudis’ pay stood at as high as SR3,137 per month.

“The huge divergence in salaries between Saudis and non-Saudis is obvious and without administrative measure taken the gap will always favor the non-Saudi wage earners,” said John Sfakianakis, Chief Economist at BSF.

In a recent study, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Secretariat said it expected the global fiscal crisis to spur plans by member states to give women a greater role in the domestic economy and reduce reliance on foreign labour.

Although they have made headway in their push for jobs, women in the six-nation GCC are still concentrated in the public sector as their share of the private labour market has remained minimal,  according to the study.

It said women in the GCC countries, which control nearly 45 per cent of the world’s recoverable oil deposits, have joined the labour market only recently because of previous social barriers.

But it noted that such barriers have started to collapse following the discovery of oil and the influx of massive numbers of foreigners to the region, adding that persistent conflicts and other factors have also precipitated the change.

According to the study, expanding women’s role in the economy as well as in politics and other sectors would contribute to lessening poverty among females and this would help increase the living standards of GCC families.

“The GCC’s programmes to nationalise jobs and gradually dispose of expatriate labour, which currently accounts for the bulk of the workforce in the region, are based on the ideal utilisation of national manpower and expansion of local women in the labour market in member states,” it said.

“We can say that such measures have combined with education and training to largely increase the role of women in the economy…but their participation has remained confined to the public sector as their presence in the private sector is still negligible…it is hoped that the global crisis which has had adverse effects on all sectors in the region could expedite social and economic measures in member states since confronting those consequences require manpower development and building of national human resources, including women.”

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