Saudi private sector employed 7m workers last year

According to figures by the Saudi labour ministry, the total number of workers in the country's private sector has reached 6,991,200 in the fiscal year 2010-2011, 10.37% of which were Saudis at 724,655, Saudi Gazette has reported. Non-Saudi workers reached 6,266,545, representing 89.63% of the total, the statistics showed. Last month, labour minister Adel Fakieh said that generating employment remains Saudi Arabia's main challenge, and that the government has been taking initiatives to tackle the three focus areas (job demand, job supply and market clearance) during the past 12 months. "Many of them have already been launched while others are either in the pipeline or conceptual stage," he said.

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