Okaz

The inner workings of labor markets differ from country to country but in general labor markets function on a supply and demand basis. The term “tight labor market” is when an economy is close to full employment, i.e. when the number of job opportunities is more than the number of people looking for employment. “Slack labor market” is when the available workforce is under utilized, i.e. when job opportunities are less than the number of people looking for employment.

In the case of the Saudi job market, we are a slack labor market for two main reasons. First, there is an inability to create enough jobs to absorb the number of people who are entering the labor market. This gap is quite large and may increase if things remain unchanged. Second, not only are graduates inefficient but their output is of an inferior quality which means that graduates seek to do the bare minimum and give little or no thought to performing better than their competition.

In addition to fierce competition and decreasing job opportunities, there are other significant challenges on the horizon that the Saudi labor market will face such as reduced government expenditure and more fiscally conservative public and private sectors.

Job opportunities will not arise unless we make a thorough inventory of the jobs occupied by expatriate workers and then see which job categories have failed to meet their minimum Saudization quotas.