Saudi Arabia to offer customer service jobs for citizens only to increase Saudization
February 2, 2021, 11:13 am

Saudi Arabia to offer customer service jobs for citizens only to increase Saudization

Saudi office workers in Riyadh. (File photo: Reuters)

Saudi Arabia will reserve customer service center jobs for Saudi citizens to “offer greater opportunities” and “improve their income potential” officials said Monday, as the oil exporter battles economic headwinds.

The kingdom, the Arab world’s economic powerhouse, has increasingly sought to employ its nationals over migrant workers, a trend that has grown across Gulf monarchies since a 2014 oil price plunge.

“Jobs in remote customer service roles will from now on be reserved for Saudis,” the Human Resources and Social Development Ministry announced in a statement.

“This decision is intended to create job opportunities for Saudis, help them improve their income levels and support the Saudi economy.”

The edict will apply to all client-facing roles that use telephone contact, email, social media and other “modern means”, the ministerial decree said.

Unemployment in Saudi Arabia reached 14.9 percent in the third quarter of 2020, approaching the record 15.4 percent jobless rate recorded a year earlier, according to official data.

Some 60 percent of unemployed Saudis are aged between 20 and 29.

The statistics authority attributed the unemployment figures to the coronavirus pandemic, which “continues to affect the Saudi job market and its economy”.

The world’s leading exporter of crude oil has faced a double hit from the global health crisis and the collapse in the price of black gold on the international market.

Last week, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman announced the Saudi Public Investment Fund would invest $40 billion in economic stimulus annually over the next five years, as the kingdom combats soaring unemployment.

source: AFP

Image source: Reuters

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BENEFIT, the Kingdom’s innovator and leading company in Fintech and electronic financial transactions service, has sponsored the BuildHer CityHack 2025 Hackathon, a two-day event spearheaded by the College of Engineering and Technology at the Royal University for Women (RUW).
Aimed at secondary school students, the event brought together a distinguished group of academic professionals and technology experts to mentor and inspire young participants.
More than 100 high school students from across the Kingdom of Bahrain took part in the hackathon, which featured an intensive programme of training workshops and hands-on sessions. These activities were tailored to enhance participants’ critical thinking, collaborative problem-solving, and team-building capabilities, while also encouraging the development of practical and sustainable solutions to contemporary challenges using modern technological tools.
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