{"id":95161,"date":"2025-03-11T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-03-11T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/ksa\/2025\/03\/11\/labor-market-hits-record-12-mn-participants-in-3q-2024\/"},"modified":"2025-03-11T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2025-03-11T00:00:00","slug":"labor-market-hits-record-12-mn-participants-in-3q-2024","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/ksa\/2025\/03\/11\/labor-market-hits-record-12-mn-participants-in-3q-2024\/","title":{"rendered":"Labor market hits record 12 mn participants in 3Q 2024"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/strong>The Kingdom\u2019s <\/strong>labor ma<\/strong>rket grew 2.6% q-o-q in 3Q 2024 to a record 12 mn<\/strong> participants<\/strong>, with women accounting for 13% of the total, according to CI Capital\u2019s Saudi Labor Market report (pdf)<\/a>. Saudi nationals\u2019 participation rate rose 0.7 percentage points q-o-q to 51.5%, with women accounting for 36.2%, up 0.8 percentage points.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re ahead of schedule: <\/strong>Having surpassed its Vision 2030 target of 30% female workforce participation in 2Q 2020, the Kingdom set a new target of 40% by 2030. Additionally, a new unemployment target of 5% for nationals by 2030 was set, as the 7% goal is expected to be reached this year.<\/p>\n

REMEMBER-<\/strong> The overall unemployment rate for locals and expats declined 0.5 percentage points y-o-y to 3.7% in 3Q 2024, according to Gastat\u2019s labor market report<\/a>. Local unemployment fell 1 percentage point y-o-y to 7.8%, while expat unemployment was down 0.1 percentage points, reaching 1.4%. Female unemployment fell 3 percentage points y-o-y to 13.6% during the quarter, while unemployment for men remained unchanged from last year at 4.7%.<\/p>\n

The private sector localization push:<\/strong> In 3Q 2024, the private sector saw a 1.8% q-o-q increase in Saudi workers to reach 2.36 mn out of 11.4 mn total private sector employees. This growth is expected to accelerate due to the Human Resources and Social Development Ministry\u2019s localization efforts in 269 professions. The education sector has been a key driver, contributing to 40% of new Saudi women hires and 27% of all new Saudi hires in 3Q 2024, following the implementation of the 50% Saudization requirement for private schools.<\/p>\n

Expat participation is on the up: <\/strong>Saudi Arabia\u2019s population grew 4.7% y-o-y to 35.3 mn in 2024, with expats \u2014 who make up 44% of the population \u2014 contributing to 76% of this increase. The number of Saudis rose 2% y-o-y to 19.6 mn. In the labor market, the number of expat participants increased by 24k q-o-q to a record 9.2 mn (76% of total participants), mainly due to the construction sector, which brought in 28% of new hires. Although expat wages remain 0.4x that of Saudis, the wage gap has been narrowing in recent years.<\/p>\n

How much are people making? <\/strong>Real wages averaged SAR 5.9k (down 12.2% y-o-y), with Saudi nationals earning SAR 9.9k (up 2.6%), Saudi women earning SAR 7.8k (down 5.1%), and non-Saudis earning SAR 4.1k (down 6.6%).<\/p>\n

Spotlight on Riyadh:<\/strong> Riyadh\u2019s labor market participation rose 0.3% q-o-q to 5.68 mn in 3Q 2024. Saudi citizens comprised 23% of the capital city\u2019s labor market, reaching 1.3 mn. The unemployment rate in Riyadh saw a marginal drop of 0.1 percentage points q-o-q to 5% \u2014 the lowest rate in the Kingdom.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Local participation rate climbed to 51.5% with significant growth in female employment<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":95162,"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":[2571],"tags":[27,10,2834,685],"brand":[],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"class_list":["post-95161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economy","tag-economy","tag-enterpriseam-ksa","tag-labor","tag-saudization","wpautop","entry"],"acf":{"mongo_id":"b820d533-1441-4e33-b7ac-9078f8972411","order":"7","is_powered_by":false,"story_type":"1","photo_url":"https:\/\/ent.news\/2025\/1\/611.jpg","photo_position":"above","homepage_title":"","full_issue_title":"Saudi Arabia\u2019s labor market hits record 12 mn participants in 3Q 2024","related_issue":[95149],"teaser":"Local participation rate climbed to 51.5% with significant growth in female employment","voice_url":"https:\/\/s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com\/ent.news\/audio\/2025\/3\/.e1af2783-f515-4d42-89f2-a3642fcab097.mp3"},"yoast_head":"\nLabor market hits record 12 mn participants in 3Q 2024 - 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