Reservation Won’t Solve Unemployment
Saudis, Expats React to Ban on Job Transfers for 22 Professions
Shahid Ali Khan

RIYADH: MAKING certain professions available to Saudis only and laying down specific labor laws as a way to achieve Saudization could adversely affect the recruitment process and hinder the country’s economic development, according to some businessmen.
Saudi businessmen were reacting to the Labor Ministry’s recent announcement banning the transfer of sponsorship for 22 professions reserved for Saudis.

Omar Al-Hamdy, Chairman and CEO of the Nesco Group, said Saudi businessmen are already facing problems in getting visas for foreign workers from the Labor Ministry. “Then come the restrictions on the transfer of sponsorship,” he added.

Al-Hamdy said his group has been engaged in development projects like telecommunications, water treatment and infrastructure. But finding the right Saudi candidate for a job is already a problem in the labor market, he said.

“First, it is difficult to find the right person with experience and secondly even if a Saudi is recruited, the big problem is his conduct toward work,” he said.

Saudis have a tendency to leave their jobs if they find something in the public sector or if they are offered better salaries in other companies. They do this without even giving any notice, he said.

The Nesco head said the right path for achieving proper Saudization, as recently announced by Labor Minister Gazi Al-Gosaibi, is the introduction of effective training programs in all types of skills.

Implementing Saudization by merely stipulating laws would not help in solving unemployment among Saudis, he said. However, the huge economic cities opened by King Abdullah will create thousands of employment opportunities for Saudis as well as foreign workers.

The Saudi labor market will fall short of manpower supplies to the five economic cities, he said.

Al-Hamdy said imposing restrictions like the sponsorship transfers will only hinder the private sector from recruiting skilled foreign workers, who are already available in the Kingdom’s labor market.

Salah Ali described the Labor Ministry’s decisions as “terrible news.” He said the new laws would work against the private sector interest.

“The Saudi workforce is trained in certain skills, but still not enough to meet the huge requirement of the labor market,” he said.

But Dr. Ahmed Abdullah Wannan, Chairman of Tech Factory for Plastic and Polystyrene Products, welcomed the measures taken by the Labor Ministry to speed up the process of Saudization.

“Any move that keeps jobs for Saudis is a good one,” he said. He added his company has already achieved around 50 percent Saudization.

This piece, appearing in Saudi Gazette, shows that the road to getting young Saudis into jobs is not a smooth one. The article covers different viewpoints held by various employers—as well as some expats who would be pushed out of their current jobs. All in all, it does seem as though better technical education will be needed to get Saudis into jobs. A more realistic sense of the world of work would help, as well as lowering some of the legal bars to firing incompetent Saudi employees.