The international news cycle has moved on from President Obama’s visit to Riyadh in late March. The surge of commentary surrounding his trip tended toward hand-wringing about the status of the US-Saudi Arabia relationship and the tension between American and Saudi perspectives regarding Iran, Syria and Egypt.
More extended analysis noted that these three issues represent just the short list of Saudi Arabia’s regional concerns. A fuller accounting includes the dangers inherent in the crumbling state of affairs in Yemen and Iraq, spillover from the Syrian crisis to Jordan and Lebanon, sectarian strife in Bahrain, the challenge of the Muslim Brotherhood and the fractious GCC itself.
Each issue presents complex strategic and security challenges that Saudi Arabia is working to ‘get right’ in order to preserve economic, political and social stability at home.
However, with regard to preserving economic, political and social stability at home, none of these external issues may be as important for Saudi Arabia to ‘get right’ as the issue of jobs.
FOCUS KSA presents Saudi Labor in Transition: What are the Challenges facing the Kingdom?
*Just under 50% of Saudi Arabia’s population is younger than 25 years old.
*Saudi men and women are graduating from high school and college in record numbers.
*A quarter of Saudi Arabia’s last three annual budgets has been devoted to education and training.
*The number of foreign laborers has been reduced by over 1 million in the last 12 months.
*The King Abdullah Scholarship Program is underwriting close to 150,000 Saudis studying abroad (75,000 in the United States)
*Strict guidelines and penalties have been put in place to promote the hiring of Saudis (Nitaqat)
*Minimum wage levels have been established in both the private and public sectors.
*Saudi Arabia is attempting to respond simultaneously to its demographic youth bulge, restructure its private-sector labor market, diversify its economy, revamp its educational system to produce more employable graduates AND evolve Saudi work habits.
