Pocket : Saudi Government to Create Recruiting Agencies

Saudi Government to Create Recruiting Agencies

• english.nuqudy.com
• November 22nd, 2012
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In light of evidence that Saudization, or the policy of requiring companies to hire Saudi nationals, has largely failed, the Ministry of Labor has decided to create recruitment companies to rectify the problem. The companies will be under the auspices of the Human Resources Development Fund.

For more on Saudization, see:

Dr. Fahd Al-Tekhafi, assistant undersecretary for development, described the labor ministry’s plans at a workshop addressing the impact of state aid on the Saudization process. According to him, the new recruitment companies will work with Saudis who are new to the labor market in order to find suitable employment for them. The companies will also provide job training in order to make their clients more marketable. Dr. Al-Tekhafi added that the companies would complement other labor ministry programs intended to decrease unemployment in Saudi Arabia. Participants at the workshop expressed disappointment in current ministry programs intended to help young Saudis find jobs, saying that more needed to be done to improve the situation in the short-term. They also suggested that the educational system needs to be improved, especially the level of English-language instruction. Despite a growing economy, Saudi Arabia suffers from a chronic problem of high unemployment. Companies often prefer to hire employees from abroad, finding that expatriates come with a stronger skill set. At the same time, Saudi nationals have a strong preference for working in the private sector, where the pay and benefits are higher.

Image credit: Joi, Flickr

Reader Comments: 8

Expat worker 2013-03-27 04:26:38 Read this article http://www.arabnews.com/saudi-arabia/mixed-reaction-expat-retirement Ali Al-Harbi, a placement expert and CEO of a private company, stressed the significance of putting Saudi youth in key positions currently held by expatriates as an effective implementation of the Saudization process. “The ministry should look at the type of job to which an unemployed Saudi is to be appointed. A Saudi should not be asked to take up inferior jobs, which do not match the economic status of his country in the world,” Al-Harbi said.

Investment Banker 2013-03-26 08:24:42 opportunists I'm actually a little disappointed so many foreigners consider Saudi's lazy, I'm sorry you haven’t had a better experience with them. As a Saudi female worker, I can assure you the majority of Saudi's are not lazy with limited ambition, on the contrary. Let me tell you this, I grew up abroad, moved to Saudi and graduated second in my class and I’m currently studying after work, self-improvement and what not. My sister is in Canada also studying, previously worked in Saudi and was a graduate top 10 in her class, and my brother is an investment banker for over 10 years. You’d think to some degree we’d have some sort of success story, we don’t, we just get by, we take the jobs we get and stick to them because well my passport isn’t red or blue its green, my account does not have 6 or 7 figures and I don’t use connections or my family name to get a job I don’t deserve. I’m a regular Saudi, work 8-5 5 days a week, I get a crappy salary because I’m a woman to boot and my boss takes credit for my work therefore he gets the 6 figure bonus I get one or two salaries. The one thing I can say is that I agree that some Saudi’s are in unqualified positions and I prefer working with Europeans and North Americans simply because of the professionalism. But please don’t sit there and say I don’t work, that I’m lazy, give me a chance and I’ll prove myself time and time again. I know some may think that if you want something bad enough you work for it, its just different here, every position you want is filled by someone who owes a favor to someone else, to someone with a bigger account than yours, to someone with a better family name than yours etc etc… There are well qualified good hard working Saudi’s its just the people who have the authority to approve the job’s are opportunists.

Frank 2013-03-26 03:07:34 Mr. Saudis are some of the nicest people I have ever met. They are also among the laziest and least competent. They "work" an average of 2 or 3 hours a day, and even that work is often of poor quality. And for that work they demand high salaries and generous benefits. But the government must share the blame. The government is responsible for the poor education these Saudis receive in school and it is the government, despite all their whining about foreigners taking jobs from Saudis, which issues visas to these foreigners. Nothing will change until Saudis become willing to do a days work for a days pay and until the government stops creating useless recruiting agencies and simply stops letting so many foreigners in the country.

hatim 2013-03-24 17:52:13 Saudi workers The Saudis love to work, the problem are the expat managers who usually bring in a brother, a friend pr a countryman at the same company and they complain about he saudis, they miss lead them they don't train them properly they give them a hard time at work. They abuse the employes by making them work a minimum of 12 hours a day for less then minimum wage( KSA dose not have minimum wage) and local lows don't really protect the employees and many managers take advantage of that.

Anthony 2013-03-22 09:10:01 Manual labor? Will Saudi citizens do manual labor like what bangalis do, cleaning the streets? Will they employ as drivers for private locals? Do they have the skills in engineering and the likes? Will they take the extra mile in the working environment? Answer is NO...most of the Saudis are lazy and uneducated...they just go to the office ,work for an hour and drink tea all the way..They are good people but workwise is a donwhill. Better let their women drive to lessen the millions of family drivers they hire, educate in the English proficiency program and stop the government subsidy that makes them more lazy..just a thought..

John 2013-03-22 05:07:40 Lazy I like Saudis. They are very nice people. The problem is that companies wont hire them because they are slow and often very lazy with little enthusiasm to help, create, or go that extra mile to help. Not all of them, of course, but in general they are poor workers.

Norman 2013-03-21 22:39:45 Who is really to blame here.. The government has done everything thing possible to help those young graduates. Good school, good scholarships to all over the world , cheap cost of living ,, yet the min they get a job anywhere , they show how bad and useless they are. Not all though but the majority is that way. They all want to be managers , they want to get high salaries , they don't want to work more than 3 hours , they complain all the time. Also, when you ask them about the problem, they blame the expats.

Pavel 2013-03-19 12:14:00 Engineer The reason that companies don't want to hire more 'locals' is that they lack the Western work ethic. As an expat in the ME I can say for sure that the locals in SA, UAE, and Kuwait rarely work more than 2 to 3 hours per day. To make matters worse few if any ever major in hard subjects at university like engineering. They all want to be managers in whatever company and expect to start as such with their basically worthless degrees in business or economics or my personal favourite business communications.