{"id":101263,"date":"2025-10-08T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-10-08T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/ksa\/2025\/10\/08\/foreign-consultancies-in-the-kingdom-hit-the-brakes-on-hiring\/"},"modified":"2025-10-08T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2025-10-08T00:00:00","slug":"foreign-consultancies-in-the-kingdom-hit-the-brakes-on-hiring","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/ksa\/2025\/10\/08\/foreign-consultancies-in-the-kingdom-hit-the-brakes-on-hiring\/","title":{"rendered":"Foreign consultancies in the Kingdom hit the brakes on hiring"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/strong>Foreig<\/strong>n consultancies\u2019 hiring spree in the Kingdom reaching an endgame <\/strong>caught the interest of the foreign press<\/strong>, with the Financial Times<\/a> attributing the trend to Saudi Arabia\u2019s reassessment of spending priorities, along with scaling back some of the Vision 2030 plans. The impact is noticeable and measurable, as the Saudi consulting market growth decelerated to 12% last year, down from 25% in 2023, Dane Albertelli, senior research analyst at Source Global Research, told the FT. Government clients are also showing increased skepticism, demanding better value and scrutinizing contracts more closely.<\/p>\n

(** Tap or click the headline above to read this story with all of the links<\/strong> to our background and outside sources.)<\/p>\n

The salmon-colored paper pointed out several factors driving the job curb<\/strong>, including lower oil prices, which are squeezing the government budget and leading to feasibility studies for multiple projects. Meanwhile, some projects are reaching the delivery phase, which requires fewer strategists and more builders. Adding to the pressure, the AI era is enabling firms to automate analytical tasks, reducing the need for large teams of junior consultants.<\/p>\n

BUT- Some see the Saudi consultancy market is naturally \u201csoftening back into<\/strong> a real market<\/strong>,\u201d after an extraordinary boom since the pandemic. Consultancy firms employed an \u201cunprecedented\u201d number of staff to meet the government\u2019s demand for Vision 2030 projects. Now that this demand decreases, the Kingdom\u2019s consulting market is hitting a \u201cpause rather than a decline,\u201d Albertelli said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Saudi consulting market growth decelerated to 12% last year, down from 25% in 2023<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":101264,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":false,"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","ep_exclude_from_search":false,"_primary_brand":0,"newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_show_updated_date":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2561],"tags":[2439,10,229,573],"brand":[],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"class_list":["post-101263","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-saudi-in-the-news","tag-ai","tag-enterpriseam-ksa","tag-saudi-in-the-news","tag-vision-2030","wpautop","entry"],"acf":{"mongo_id":"4251c800-331c-4b70-8f47-fb56c72d6750","order":"11","is_powered_by":false,"story_type":"1","photo_url":"https:\/\/ent.news\/2024\/4\/1812.jpg","photo_position":"above","homepage_title":"","full_issue_title":"Foreign consultancies in the Kingdom hit the brakes on hiring","related_issue":[101244],"teaser":"The Saudi consulting market growth decelerated to 12% last year, down from 25% in 2023","voice_url":"https:\/\/s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com\/ent.news\/audio\/2025\/10\/.f51c198f-f92c-46ec-ad9f-95d8e46be5d7.mp3"},"yoast_head":"\nForeign consultancies in the Kingdom hit the brakes on hiring - 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