Riyadh – Saudi General Authority for Statistics (GaStat) revealed that the number of Saudi employees has increased while the unemployment ratio remained stable at 11.6% during the second quarter of 2016.

GaStat issued the report of labor force survey showing an increase of Saudi labor force to 5.661.554 individuals whereas the ratio of unemployment among Saudis, who are 15 years and above, remained stable registering 11.6%.

Unemployment ratio represents a slight increase when compared to the second half of 2015 which was 11.5%.

Whereas the ratio of unemployment among all population who are 15 years and above, including Saudis and non-Saudis, reached 5.6%.

The results also demonstrated that Saudi labor force consists mostly of individuals whose ages range between (20-39) years with a percentage of 65%, with 36% who have a bachelor degree.

As for unemployed persons, the survey results showed a slight increase in their numbers during the second quarter of 2016.

There are about 657.936 unemployed individuals, 35.9% of whom are males and 64.1% females. The highest percentage of unemployed Saudis was among individuals between 25 and 29 years old, while the percentage of unemployed Saudis who have a bachelor degree recorded (54.0%).

In the report, GaStat defined “labor force” as all employed and unemployed individuals who are 15 years and above. Whereas “employed persons” refers to all individuals, 15 years and above who worked during the week in which the survey was conducted, for at least one hour with a salary, percentage, any kind of profits, or for free. The category also includes employees who were on sick leave.

The authority defined also unemployed persons as individuals who are above the age of 15, and seriously looked for jobs during the four weeks prior to the date of the house visit of the statistician. This group consists of people who are able and ready to work but were jobless at the time of the visit.

The authority attributed the differences between the administrative records of the organizations, which are related to labor market, and the survey results to the differences in data collection used methodologies.

It is worth mentioning that GaStat is the only official authority that carries the responsibility of conducting and publishing all social and economic statistics in Saudi Arabia. It also conducts the labor force survey quarterly.

This survey is targeting a specific sample of households (33.500 households) according to international standards applied in such surveys.