Women's participation in Saudi workforce increases to nearly 20% in Q2: Jadwa

Women’s participation in the Saudi labor force increased to 19.6 percent in the second quarter (Q2) of 2018 as compared to 17.4 percent in Q2 2017, indicating more enthusiasm among women to join the market, said a recent report from Jadwa Investment.

The Ministry of Labor and Social Development (MLSD) has introduced several measures to support hiring women in the private sector, including quotas for hiring in certain jobs within the retail sector, and provided a number of initiatives to facilitate joining the labor force such as Qurrah, a child care program, and Wusool, to facilitate transportation to work.

However, the women labor force participation rate is still below the MLSD’s updated national transformation program (NTP) target, where the aim is to raise the rate up to 25 percent by 2020, the report mentioned.

Looking at the labor market breakdown, the number of unemployed women reached 433,000 compared to 402,000 in Q2 2017, rising by 7.7 percent year-on-year (YoY).

“With increasing number of women joining the labor market, the labor force participation rate rose, but the number of unemployed women is still higher than unemployed men. As the rising number of women joining the labor market was not met by equivalent number of jobs, the unemployment rate rose,” the report further added.