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Economy of Saudi Arabia

Employment among Saudi Arabian nationals remained at a record high of 12.9 percent, as privately owned businesses stayed hesitant to employ regardless of the rising oil costs. This rose from a previous rate of 11.6 percent in the third quarter of 2016. Based on data collected as early as 1999, this marks the highest rate ever. Private employers were hit by a new sales tax and domestic fuel price hike.

At the same time, as this high level of foreign employment exists, there is substantial unemployment among Saudi male youth. The number of Saudis in employment decreased marginally from 3.15 million to 3.13 million. Expat jobs, which is when "expats" are sent by their countries to work in foreign countries, declined by 2.3 percent or 234,191 over the first three months of 2018 to just over 10.18 million, according to results revealed by the country's General Authority for statistics. Saudi women's unemployment rate decreased during the quarter to 30.9 percent from 31.0 percent in the fourth of 2017; the unemployment rate for Saudi men increased from 7.6 percent during the same period. The unemployment rate among Saudi nationals stood at 12.7 percent in the first quarter of 2017, the rate then rose to 12.8 percent, which was prevalent for three quarters, before reaching 12.9 percent in the first quarter of 2018. In addition, the unemployment rate among non-Saudis increases from 0.7 percent in the fourth quarter of 2017 to 0.9 percent in the first quarter of 2018. According to the Saudi Press Agency, the most up to date statistics show that the total number of Saudis seeking jobs is 906,552, of which around 219,000 are men and 687,500 are women.