Saudi unemployment unchanged at 11.3% in Q3

Unemployment among Saudi citizens remained at 11.3% in the third quarter, unchanged from the previous three months, official data showed on Monday.

The unemployment rate of Saudi Arabia's working age population, which includes all residents above 15 years old, was 6.6% in the third quarter, data from the General Authority for Statistics showed.

That was also unchanged quarter on quarter, but down by 1.9 percentage points year on year.


Saudi Arabia has been pushing through economic reforms since 2016 to create millions of jobs and aims to reduce unemployment to 7% by 2030, but those plans were disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic that sent oil prices plummeting last year.

Unemployment hit a record high of 15.4% in the second quarter last year but has declined rapidly since then, reaching pre-pandemic levels in the first quarter this year.