JEDDAH: Unemployment among Saudi Arabian citizens eased marginally to 12.8 percent in the third quarter of 2018, official figures released on Sunday showed.
The jobless rate first hit 12.9 percent, the highest level recorded by the statistics agency in data going back to 1999, in the first quarter of 2018 as private employers were hit by a new sales tax and a domestic fuel price hike.
The General Authority for Statistics publishes its Labor Force Survey on a quarterly basis, based on administrative records with relevant authorities including the Ministry of Labor and Social Development, Ministry of Civil Service, General Organization for Social Insurance, Human Resources Development Fund and National Information Center.
The unemployment rate for Saudi females decreased to 30.9 percent compared with 31.1 percent in the second quarter of 2018, and for Saudi males it decreased to 7.5 percent compared to 7.6 percent in the second quarter.
The survey also showed a decrease in the number of non-Saudi male employees from the Kingdom’s administrative records, standing at 8,622,890 against 8,927,862 in the previous quarter. The number of non-Saudi female workers increased by 9,696 to reach 964,861.
