UNEMPLOYMENT PLAGUES THE KINGDOM BUT THE PICTURE IS MORE COMPLEX THAN IT SEEMS

The Kingdom’s press is rife with articles expressing concern about the unemployment crisis. While the Kingdom provides employment to millions of foreigners, its sons and daughters seemingly find themselves without a means to make a living. But the picture is more complex.

The truer picture is that the more significant number of jobs provided to foreigners are low-wage, and therefore unappealing to the Saudis. The reporting of news is accountable for the confusion surrounding the employment situation. For instance, it was reported in early October that over 40,000 young men competed over 80 positions that became available in the Ministry of Finance. Many in the press used this story to illustrate the severity of the unemployment crisis in the Kingdom.

But SPC suspects that this large number can be explained not only by the unemployment crisis in the kingdom–-a real crisis-–but also by the fact that the jobs offered were at the Ministry of Finance. In many countries, that ministry overseas real estate transactions, and a job there is a sure way to becoming wealthy on bribes.

(To illustrate: Compare to the American scheme of revolving doors, connecting the public sector to the private, and benefitting entrepreneurial employees and politicians and their family members. To its credit, the Middle Eastern system is more direct.)

Though low-paying, these available jobs--in the millions--cumulatively generate a large capital. It was revealed in early June that foreign labor in Saudi Arabia transfers as much as $20 billion each year in remittances to their families. (This estimate, proffered by a Saudi economist, was meant to prod the Saudi government to introduce legislation to lure some of that money to be invested in the Kingdom.)

The low-paying job are so substandard that it would be hard to imagine Saudis competing for them. For instance, 1.3 million Bangladeshis work in the kingdom. Most are paid the minimum wage of $16 per month, a wage that seems to have been the result of negotiations between the two governments. (Per capita income is Saudi Arabia is estimated at $8540. In Bangladesh, it is estimated at $360.) It's unlikely that even the very poor in Saudi Arabia would accept to work for a measly $16 per month. In politics, however, these unemployed young Saudis are eminently open to mobilization, as they see a relatively large number of young princes and young members of rich merchant families flaunt their wealth, unearned. An egalitarian Islamic discourse should therefore appeal to them; in fact, the opposition's literature is rife with such discourse. The future doesn't bode well for the young, as it’s also estimated that nearly 45 percent of the Saudi population is below the age of fifteen. The crisis therefore should get worse.

The happy news for Saudi Arabia: Oil revenues peaked to a twenty-year record number of $85 billion.