Saudi Unemployment Falls to Lowest Since 2008 as Economy Booms

(Bloomberg) -- Sign up for our Middle East newsletter and follow us @middleeast for news on the region.

Saudi Arabia’s citizen unemployment rate fell to the lowest since 2008 as economic growth surged on the back of higher oil revenue.

Joblessness was at 10.1% in the first quarter, down from 11% in the final three months of last year. The rate reached 5.1% for male citizens and 20.2% for female Saudis, according to data published Thursday by the kingdom’s General Authority for Statistics. 

The economy of the world’s largest crude exporter grew nearly 10% in the first quarter, buoyed by higher oil prices and production. The non-oil economy, the engine of job creation, expanded 3.7%. 

Citizen unemployment peaked at over 15% at the height of the pandemic in mid-2020 and has since fallen almost every quarter. Yet even in a booming job market, the labor participation rate for Saudis fell by 1.4 percentage point from the fourth quarter to 50.1% in the first three months of this year.

©2022 Bloomberg L.P.