The overall unemployment rate in the Kingdom fell by 0.1 percentage points y-o-y to 3.2% in 2Q 2025, according to the latest labor market report (pdf) from state statistics agency Gastat. Unemployment among Saudis fell 0.3 percentage points y-o-y to 6.8%, while the expat unemployment rate rose 0.3 percentage points to 1.4%. Meanwhile, the employment-to-population ratio rose to 65.0% in 2Q 2025, compared to 64.0% in the same period last year.

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Unemployment climbed on a quarterly basis, with overall unemployment up 0.4 percentage points, Saudi unemployment widening 0.5 percentage points, and expat unemployment rising 0.6 percentage points, compared to 1Q 2025.

Gender unemployment gap shows uneven progress: The unemployment rate for Saudi women stood at 11.3% in 2Q 2025, down 1.5 percentage points y-o-y but up 0.7 percentage points from the record low seen in 1Q 2025. For Saudi men, unemployment edged up 0.3 percentage points y-o-y and q-o-q to 4.3%.

MEANWHILE- Saudi female youth (aged 15-24) saw a 0.7 percentage-point quarterly decrease in their employment-to-population ratio to 13.8%, while their labor force participation rate dipped 1.0 percentage point to 17.4%. The employment-to-population ratio for Saudi male youth also decreased by 1.2 percentage points to 28.0%, while their labor force participation rate fell by 1.4 percentage points to 31.6%.

How Saudis job hunt: The most commonly used job search method was directly applying to employers, used by 72.4% of jobseekers, followed by using the national unified employment platform Jadarat (56.3%), and asking friends or relatives about job listings (50.5%).

REMEMBER- The government established a new unemployment target of 5% for Saudi nationals by 2030, after meeting the original goal of 7% late last year.

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