Press reports have confirmed the failure of a plan by the Saudi Ministry of Labor and Social Development, which was launched in 2017, to create 141,000 “remote” jobs for Saudi women until the end of 2019.
Three years after the launch of the project, figures issued by the Saudi Ministry of Labor showed that only nine Saudi women in all regions of the Kingdom are the ones who succeeded in this job.
In 2017, the Saudi Ministry launched 68 initiatives that support women's rights to work, including partnering with the private sector to support the employment of Saudis in leadership professions.
The case is not only about the failure to work remotely, but also, as statistics issued by the Human Resources Development Fund showed that the number of Saudi women benefiting from additional wage support reached 272 in the third quarter of last year compared to 402 in the second quarter of the same year, which is a decrease by 32%.
The statistics also revealed that Saudi beneficiaries of additional wage subsidies decreased to 1,071 beneficiaries in the third quarter, compared to 1.194 in the second quarter of last year, a decrease of about 10%.
The number of women benefiting from the direct employment support program also decreased to 1.627 in the third quarter of the previous year, after the number was 4,341 beneficiaries in the second quarter of the same year, according to the same statistics.
On the other hand, the number of male beneficiaries of the program also decreased to 4,018 Saudis, compared to 6,071 in the second quarter of 2019.
According to the report, the total number of employed Saudis and non-Saudis reached 12 million and 857 thousand, including two million and 300 thousand girls, and the number of Saudis working in a job reached 3 million, including one million girls, during the second quarter of 2019.
The unemployment rate of Saudi women was 32.5%, according to the latest official statistics released by the Statistics Authority from 2018.
Specialists affirm that the reasons for failure are first the lack of acceptance of the idea of work by Saudi women, which is the prevailing culture in their society, and second relliance on men concerning their expenses and needs.
Experts also believe that the lack of experience of Saudi women in dealing with self-employment sites caused the failure of the government program, in addition to the financial allowance that is not commensurate with the economic conditions inside the Kingdom, namely the high standard of living.
According to experts, the success of the remote work plan requires long hours of training by specialists, which is what the Saudi authorities did not work on, as it launched the program and opened the registration door without providing any advice to Saudi women.
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