Salaries for mid-level to senior professionals in Saudi Arabia will rise between 5-6% on average in 2019 and women will see a 15% rise in workforce participation in 2019, a recent study by GCC-based recruitment consultancy Cooper Fitch said.
The study, the Cooper Fitch Salary Guide for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in 2019, provides salary expectation ranges for mid-level to senior professionals and hiring across the Kingdom and insights on the employment market, key drivers for change and expected patterns in 2019. Cooper Fitch estimates GDP growth in Saudi Arabia to be between 4-5%.
The labor market in Saudi Arabia is becoming increasingly competitive, the study notes, with reforms brought on by Vision 2030 starting to take effect, the study said.
“We have witnessed many boutique firms expanding this year in different fields such as restructuring, investigations, forensics and risk advisory. While hiring managers are approaching talent from Big 4 firms, there is still a growing need for talent with a niche skillsets such as; infrastructure, capital projects and debt advisory.”
Saudi Arabia is hoping to boost employment for Saudi nationals while simultaneously cracking down on illegal workers and residents. A recent report in the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) revealed that the Saudi government has arrested more than 2.3 million people as part of the kingdom’s ongoing crackdown on illegal workers and residents since November 2017. Roughly 300,000 people have been arrested since November 2018.
[Click here to read the full study from Cooper Fitch]
