Saudi government to provide cash incentives for private sector to hire Saudis

JEDDAH: The government will contribute to the wages of Saudis employed in the private sector, one of several incentives to motivate the hiring of nationals and increase their participation in the labor market. Saudi Minister of Labor and Social Development Ahmad Al-Rajhi announced the initiative in Riyadh on Tuesday. Al-Rajhi, who is also chairman of the Governing Council of the Human Resources Development Fund (HRDF), said the program was aimed at improving skills and readying the Kingdom’s population for the future. Saudi Arabia has restricted certain jobs to Saudis and pressed companies to employ higher ratios of nationals to foreign workers. Its Vision 2030 reform plan wants to cut unemployment from 11.6 percent to seven percent and to increase women’s participation in the workforce from 22 percent to 30 percent. Under the ministry’s program the minimum monthly wage to be supported is SR4,000 ($1,066) and the maximum is SR10,000. Source: Arab News