KSA to lay off 17,800 foreign workers
Reuters, Riyadh
Saudi Arabia is to replace 17,800 white-collar foreign workers with Saudis in a continuing "Saudisation" of its labour force to reduce unemployment in the oil-rich Arab state, Saudi media said on Wednesday.The law-offs include 16,204 employees from the public education sector, 854 from private education and 42 from the defence ministry, al-Watan newspaper said, adding the posts would be advertised for Saudis within days. Most of the foreign workers will lose their right of residence when their contracts end and will have to leave the country within a month. The government is trying to boost the numbers of jobs for Saudi nationals because of an unemployment rate estimated to be as high as 12 per cent. Foreigners make up just over half of the national workforce. Analysts say oil revenues are increasingly unable to meet the needs of the more than 17 million Saudis. There are around six million expatriates in the kingdom.
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