Business & Money | Sunday 1 May, 2016 10:59 am |

Job opportunities for skilled Saudi nationals in the IT and telecommunications sector has shown a 24 percent growth year on year, according to the latest Monster Employment Index.  The rise in opportunities reflects nationalization efforts across the country’s small, medium and large businesses.  

“Our latest employment index mirrors the Kingdom’s decision to employ only Saudi nationals across the entire cell phone industry, with up to 20,000 Saudi men and women to be trained in mobile phone sales, maintenance and customer service.  In terms of job prospects, the IT and telecommunications sector charts the steepest growth, with online job postings growing at 24 percent on the year to March 2016,” said Sanjay Modi, Managing Director, Monster.com (India, Middle East, South East Asia and Hong Kong).

Last month, Labor Minister Mufrej Al-Haqabani announced a target of filling 50 percent of positions in the mobile phone industry with Saudi employees in three months and 100 percent in six months.  

The plan will be implemented through targeted training programs for Saudis focusing on customer service, maintenance and entrepreneurship and carried out by the Human Resources Development Fund (HRDF), Technical and Vocational Training Corporation (TVTC) and other agencies

“Communications and Information Technology is a vital sector in the diversification of the economy in Saudi Arabia as the country moves away from reliance on hydrocarbons and focuses on building a knowledge economy.  The measures announced by the Ministry of Labor to train and upskill Saudi men and women is a smart move to increase professional competence in the industry and possibly trigger a similar effect in other sectors,” said Modi. 

The Monster Employment Index is a monthly gauge of online job posting activity in the Middle-East based on a real-time review of tens of thousands of employer job opportunities culled from a large representative selection of career websites and online job listings.  The Index does not reflect the trend of any one advertiser or source, but is an aggregate measure of the change in job listings across the industry.