The percentage of Saudi employees among the total workforce in the private sector rose to 21.8 percent during the fourth quarter of 2020, announced the National Labor Observatory (NLO) of the Human Resources Development Fund (HADAF).
Saudis made up 19.81 percent of the total workforce during 2018, a jump from 18.3 percent in 2017 and 16.4 percent in 2016.
According to the observatory, Saudi subscribers from the private sector in the General Organization for Social Insurance (GOSI) during Q4 were 1,749,571, with 65.6 percent males and 34.4 percent females.
The Eastern Province topped in the Saudization rate with 25.3 percent, followed by Riyadh with 22.5 percent, Makkah 21.4 with percent, Madinah 19.2 with percent and Asir 17.6 with percent.
The strategic objectives of the observatory include the provision of accurate and reliable data to all stakeholders, supplying analysis and insights to business partners, building a network of experts and professionals to meet the challenges of the labor market, and managing and disseminating knowledge.
The portal’s operational goals are based on planning and improving data, ensuring data quality, developing labor market reports and indices, improving labor market metrics, providing analytical support to key stakeholders, providing development services to internal business partners, managing research projects, establishing a network of experts and specialists and collecting and storing data and products monitored by the observatory.
Meanwhile, Minister of Human Resources and Social Development Ahmed al-Rajhi issued an order to Saudize remote customer service professions.
The ministry said in a statement Monday that this decision is in coordination and cooperation with the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, with the aim to create more job opportunities for Saudis, help them improve their income level and support the Saudi economy and gross domestic product (GDP) in line with Vision 2030.
The decision includes work contracts or outsourcing of services under which employers offer work remotely and covers all professions and jobs that are offered at remote customer service call centers, whether by phone, e-mail, online chat, social media or direct interaction.
The ministry, in cooperation with HADAF, will offer a number of training and support programs for customer service professions.
The programs will be carried through training and support channels, such as Tamheer, e-training platform Doroob, summer training platform Saifi, HADAF Academy for Leadership and the Saudi Human Resources portal.
