Saudi unemployment rate falls to 11% in Q4/2021

Harshita Suresh March 31, 2022

Less than a minute

The unemployment rate among Saudis was 11.0% in the fourth quarter of 2021, down 0.3 percentage points from Q3/2021, and lower by 1.6 percentage points when compared to a year ago in Q4/2020, based on estimates of the General Authority for Statistics’ (GASTAT) Labor Force Survey.

Among males, the job growth kept pace with increases in the participation rate, pushing the unemployment rate down 0.7 pp to 5.2%. The unemployment rate of female youth rose 2.4 percentage points to 25.2% in the fourth quarter of 2021.

The labour force participation rate of the total working-age population (Saudis and non-Saudis 15 years and above) edged up 0.3 pp to 61.5%, while the Saudi labour force participation increases to 51.5%.