القوى العاملة في المملكة العربية السعودية : أبعادها المكانية و سماتها الديموغرافية و الاقتصادية و الاجتماعية

Abstract EN

The population economic composition is very important in planning for manpower and education, in addition to its role in preparing the comprehensive development plans.

Therefore, the five year development plans and strategies for manpower in Saudi Arabia have concentrated on Ihe development of human resources on one hand, and attempted to increase participation of local workers in the private and public sectors on the other.

To achieve these goals, knowledge of the geographic distribution of the labor force and its characteristics, especially occupational and economic composition is necessary.

Therefore, this study attempts to accomplish such purpose.

It is found that the annual growth rate for the total labor force reaches 6%.

The Saudi and non-Saudi labor forces have grown by 2.7% and 11% respectively.

The non-saudis comprise about 57% of total labor force, while females comprise about 9% of the local labor force, and about 13% of the non~saudis.

The labor force has experienced many structural and occupational changes.

For example, the services sector has shifted from second rank order to the first, while agriculture moved from first to fifth place.

It is noticed that non-saudis are distributed more evenly among economic sectors, while Saudis are concentrated in the Services' sector, perhaps, in the expense of productive sectors.

As a result, the need for foreign workers might perpetuate in the future.

It is also found that the spatial variations on the numbers of the labor force and its occupational and economic characteristics, reflecting the economic differences among areas.

It is also shown that the levels of deficit in the numbers of local workers differ from one economic sector to the other, and between occupational groups, and vary from one administrative area to the other.

Finally, the contribution of female to the labor force is apparently still limited.

Based on these results, several recommendations are formulated and presented.