Saudi to localise engineering jobs from 2021

Saudi Arabia has announced plans to localise 20 per cent of engineering jobs in the country, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development has said.

The decision, effective from the beginning of 2021, applies to 117 engineering professions, with a monthly salary of not less than SAR7,000, local media reported.

The decision applies to all private sector establishments that employ five or more engineering professionals.

The ministry also announced a package of incentives to private sector firms for employing Saudi engineers including supporting the recruitment process and searching for suitable employees and assisting with the required training and qualification processes.

The move is anticipated to create more than 7,000 jobs, and was taken in view of the labour market situations pertaining to engineering professions and activities, the ministry said.

It warned that companies found violating the directive will stop receiving government services. Punitive measures will also be initiated against the company if they are found employing a foreign worker in a profession other than the one listed in the work permit.

The directive comes within a set of decisions taken to localise certain professions in the kingdom to enable Saudi graduates to take up jobs and contribute to the development of the private sector.

Saudi has been aggressively pushing to nationalise its workforce in recent years.

Saudisation rules in the kingdom – particularly in the retail and hospitality sector – saw hundreds of thousands of legal foreign workers leave the country in 2018 and 2019.

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