Number of Private Sector Employees in Saudi Reaches Record 11 Million

The total number of people working in Saudi Arabia’s private sector has reached a historic high, exceeding 11 million during the month of January, according to the latest report by the Kingdom’s National Labor Observatory (NLO).

Around 20% of this workforce is made up of Saudi citizens, with roughly 2.3 million employed in the private sector, with the remaining 8.7 million made up of expatriate workers; the vast majority of whom are men. Representation of female expatriates in Saudi Arabia meanwhile is less than 0.5%.

The report also concluded that in January alone, 32,447 Saudi citizens joined the private sector for the first time. This increase is due in large part to initiatives implemented by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development, which increased the number of available private sector jobs, in addition to general economic reforms and government support for workers.