Saudi unemployment down to 11.3% in Q2

Unemployment in Saudi Arabia declined only marginally to 11.3 per cent in the second quarter from 11.7 per cent in the first three months of the year, official data showed on Thursday, signalling that recovery from the coronavirus crisis has lost some momentum.

Saudi Arabia has been pushing through economic reforms since 2016 to create millions of jobs and aims to reduce unemployment to 7 per cent by 2030, but those plans were disrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic that sent oil prices plummeting.

Unemployment hit a record high of 15.4 per cent in the second quarter last year but it has declined rapidly since then, reaching pre-pandemic levels in the first quarter this year.

The pace of decline slowed down in the second quarter, however, data from the General Authority for Statistics showed on Thursday, while a business survey this month pointed to a sharp drop in output expansion in the private sector.

Unemployment among Saudi women increased to 22.3 per cent in Q2 from 21.2 per cent the previous quarter, the statistics authority said.