Social insurance subscriptions fall 2% in Q1: GOSI

Saudi Arabia’s General Organization for Social Insurance (GOSI) said that a total of 9.47 million private sector clients were subscribed to the social insurance scheme by the end of the first quarter of 2018, a 2.2 percent quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) drop.

Insured citizens, which account for 19 percent of the total private sector subscribers, decreased by 17,500 clients to 1.76 million in Q1, compared to the previous quarter.

The number of insured expatriate workers also retreated by 199,500 QoQ in Q1 to 7.71 million. They account for 81 percent of the Kingdom’s total private sector subscribers.

Regarding salaries, a total of 806,700 (or 46 percent) of Saudi insured employees reported salaries below SAR 3,000 a month, while 227,900 Saudi employees (or 13 percent) earned above SAR 10,000 a month.

Meanwhile, 6.7 million foreigner employees (87 percent of total expatriate workforce) earned less than SAR 3,000 per month, while 249,000 expatriates (3 percent) were paid more than SAR 10,000 a month in Q1.

Region wise, Riyadh accounted for the largest number of insured workers at 3.4 million, or 36 percent of total subscribers.

The building and construction sector accounted for 40 percent of the total insurance subscribers in Q1 with 3.83 million employees, while the commercial sector represented 25 percent or 2.38 million workers.