As noted in a post below, Saudi Arabia has a complicated—and generally messed up—employment situation. Millions of foreign workers are imported to do work. At the same time, millions of Saudis are unemployed.
A lot of the problem comes from the fact that Saudis are not interested in doing certain kinds of work, e.g. most manual labor. They see it as ‘beneath’ their dignity, an attitude that is cyclically encouraged by the fact that they import poor, poorly educated, and poorly globally socialized workers from underdeveloped countries. There are further barriers thrown up by a society that makes judgments for its members, exemplified in the protests raised when some Saudi women said they were willing to take jobs as maids and domestic workers. ‘Not our sisters!’ came the call.
But even as the government tries to implement ‘Saudization’—the replacement of foreign workers by Saudi workers—the government also impedes Saudis looking for work. This article from Saudi Gazette reports on how the Riyadh Labor Office is failing in its task.
Slow, long waits grind Riyadh Labor Office
Majed Al-MaimouniRIYADH – As the world rapidly moves into virtual offices to process workflow for greater efficiency, hundreds of people line up under unpredictable weather conditions as early as 2 A.M. at the Riyadh Labor Office to be closer to the window clerk five hours later. Throughout the night, people have been seen waiting on dark wisdom of the labor office.
Whether waiting to process a job application or a labor dispute, the operational aspect of workflow is: agony.
Riyadh Labor Office is perhaps special in its never-ending bureaucracy in processing paperwork transactions, a problem that has plagued most government offices, said Mufleh Al-Qahtani, spokesman of National Human Rights Commission.
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November:17:2008 - 12:29
Oman which has a similar mix (by raw numbers) to Saudi is also trying to get more nationals into paid employment. Though I am in Oman I have worked in Saudi and appreciate that there is a different cultural background.
In general attempts to create employment has been more successful when entire sections of work has been Omanised (all Taxi drivers, all grocery stores, all gas delivery etc) .
That is not to say that’s its been great – many earn very low wages and are ‘thrown in at the deep end’ in employment areas where support (mentoring) or training would be ideal (the grocery stores are bleeding capital and are large numbers are closing – because of owners cash withdrawals, low margins and large supermarkets being still able to employ expats having an unfair cost advantage on top of all the other government subsidies large corporations receive).
Young Omanis seem to succeed in small self-employed co-operatives (like gas deliveries) which gives them flexi time and fellow worker support.
Entrenched work practices in large companies, income earned from visa issue both abroad and in Oman , and the continual flow of low wage competition mean that getting onto the employed job ladder is difficult.
Add in the inability of employers to hire and fire (so they don’t hire) and if the young Omani does get in he may be faced with expat co-workers who view him as a threat to their own job security (remove that threat and a big barrier is removed) and its clear the hurdles to overcome are considerable.
Yes, in Oman some may view work areas as beneath them – but others sweep roads, build buildings and work in hospitality fields.
If the employment door is ajar it might surprise people who steps through.