Quantifying the labor demand for Saudi Labor (June Newsletter)
In a previous article, I introduced a proxy indicator for the private sector’s demand for Saudi citizens. I have also shown unique data on the difference in offered median wages by gender and between citizens and foreign labor to explore if certain groups are valued higher by private companies. In this article, I provide updates on both measures and further present two new indicators[1]:
Median offered wages by nationality and educational attainment, and
Median offered wages by nationality and the required years of experience.[2]
The average share of job ads that were exclusively looking to employ citizens is around 17.3% between Feb-June 2023.[3] This translates into approximately 1 in every 5 online job ads looking to strictly hire Saudis. As I have argued before, this is a useful leading economic indicator for policymakers in both 1) MHRSD and 2) MEP that are expected to increase the number of Saudis in the private sector. This indicator is crucial to monitor because it tells us about Saudi firms’ appetite to employ citizens, which can be then compared with actual payroll data from GOSI. For instance, the indicator can inform officials whether the imposed nationalization quotas are reflected in job ads or if unrealistic quotas may be leading to more fake employment.
Graph 1. The monthly share of jobs exclusively recruiting citizens between Feb-June 2023[4]
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