البطالة في المملكة العربية السعودية : أبعادها المكانية و ملامحها الديموغرافية و الاجتماعية

الملخص EN

This paper addresses the problem of unemployment in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, which has recently become one of the prominent issues raised nationally.

The paper investigates the general distribution of the national and foreign labor force in the Kingdom and analyses the regional variation of unemployment levels and the major factors behind them.

In addition, the study also examines the demographic and social characteristics of the unemployed manpower and its spatial variations of these characteristics.

Data for this study has been drawn primarily from the General Population and Housing Census of 1413 H (1992).

In addition, the author has also obtained pertinent data on employment and Saudi labor market from other varied sources.

Major findings of the study are summarized as follows: While the Saudi labor market grew by an annual rate of 6.1% during the period 1970-2000, the contribution of the Saudi labor force decreased from85.2% to 44.2% in the same period.

In 1992, the rate of unemployment for the Saudi manpower reached 13.4%, while it was only 3% for the expatriates.

There were marked regional variations in the unemployment levels.

The regions of Hail (24.3%), Jasan (21.4%), and Northern Frontier (19.8%) recorded the highest rates, while Riyadh region recorded the lowest rate (10.4%).

72% of the unemployment Saudis was from the youth group (12-29 year olds of the total).

Those with primary education constituted more than 71% of the unemployed Studies.

19.3% of the illiterates were unemployed while the rate was only 7.3% for those with a university degree.

The study concludes with some relevant recommendations aiming to help concerned authorities develop better manpower planning and reduce the problem of unemployment in the Kingdom,