Workers from Subcontinent Dominate Private Sector Jobs

Saudi Gazette report

BURAIDAH — Workers from three subcontinent countries mainly India, Pakistan and Bangladesh are dominating jobs in the private sector together representing about 55.8 percent of the sector’s entire workforce especially in the major cities such as Riyadh, Makkah Province and the Eastern region, Makkah daily reported on Monday quoting a latest statistical report by the Ministry of Labor and Social Development.

The report said the Saudis, with 1.8 million employees, represent about 16.7 percent of the private sector’s workforce.

According to the report, out of 10.8 million expatriates, about nine million of them, representing 83.3 percent, are working in the Saudi lobar market.

The Indians with 2.1 millions, representing 24 percent, top all other nationalities employed by the private sector followed by 1.94 million Pakistanis (21 percent) and 972,000 Bangladeshis (10.8 percent).

Rashid Al-Fouzan, an economic analyst, believes that the low pay and the ability of these workers to work under difficult conditions, made them favorite of being employed by the private sector.

“The subcontinent citizens can work in hard jobs demanding physical prowess such as construction and contracting,” he said. Fouzan also said the Asian workers take the jobs from which the Saudis usually shy away such as cleaning and maintenance.

“Other reasons include the abundance of these workers who can easily satisfy the requirements of the Saudi labor market,” he added.
Fouzan said these three nationalities are the largest among expatriates in most of the countries not the Kingdom alone.

According to him, the absence of the African manpower is due to the restrictive recruitment rules in their own countries in addition to the fact that they mostly favor Europe and other countries in the West.

Fouzan said the abundance of the Asian workers in the Kingdom is also due to the fact that their countries encourage them to migrate to make more money, their comparatively cheap price, their quick integration in the society and their ability to work under pressure.

Khaled Al-Othaim, chairman of the contractors’ committee at the Qasim Chamber of Commerce and Industry said the employers are usually looking for less costly workers who are at the same time qualified and skillful.
“The sector of contracting keeps the majority of these three nationalities,” he said.

According to him, the noticeable absence of workers from China, Nepal and other Asian and African countries is due to the difficulty of recruitment and the lack of marketing offices.

(Source: SaudiGazette.com.sa)