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11.2 Million Saudis Join Private Employment Market

According to the Labor Observatory statistics, the total number of workers in the private sector reached about 10.9 million. (SPA)
According to the Labor Observatory statistics, the total number of workers in the private sector reached about 10.9 million. (SPA)
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11.2 Million Saudis Join Private Employment Market

According to the Labor Observatory statistics, the total number of workers in the private sector reached about 10.9 million. (SPA)
According to the Labor Observatory statistics, the total number of workers in the private sector reached about 10.9 million. (SPA)

A new report has shown that the Saudi private sector employment market has for the first time incorporated over 11.2 million employees, 8.8 of whom are expatriates and 2.3 million are Saudi nationals.
The increase in the number of Saudis in the employment market comes at a time when the unemployment rate among Saudis recorded the lowest level at 7.7 percent during the last quarter of 2023.
This is very close to the Vision 2030 unemployment target of 7 percent, thanks to the increase in the number of female workers and the government’s efforts to create more job opportunities for Saudis.
In its statistical figures, the National Labor Observatory said on Wednesday that over 28.1 thousand citizens joined, for the first time, the private sector’s labor force last March.
According to the Observatory, 9.9 million employees in the private sector are males, while the number of females touched 1.3 million.

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Washington Urges Israel to Extend Cooperation with Palestinian Banks

A West Bank Jewish settlement is seen in the background, while a protestor waves a Palestinian flag during a protest against Israel's separation barrier in the West Bank village of Bilin in 2012. (AP)
A West Bank Jewish settlement is seen in the background, while a protestor waves a Palestinian flag during a protest against Israel's separation barrier in the West Bank village of Bilin in 2012. (AP)
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Washington Urges Israel to Extend Cooperation with Palestinian Banks

A West Bank Jewish settlement is seen in the background, while a protestor waves a Palestinian flag during a protest against Israel's separation barrier in the West Bank village of Bilin in 2012. (AP)
A West Bank Jewish settlement is seen in the background, while a protestor waves a Palestinian flag during a protest against Israel's separation barrier in the West Bank village of Bilin in 2012. (AP)

The United States on Thursday called on Israel to extend its cooperation with Palestinian banks for another year, to avoid blocking vital transactions in the occupied West Bank.

"I am glad that Israel has allowed its banks to continue cooperating with Palestinian banks, but I remain convinced that a one-year extension of the waiver to facilitate this cooperation is needed," US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Thursday, on the sidelines of a meeting of G20 finance ministers in Rio de Janeiro.

In May, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich threatened to cut off a vital banking channel between Israel and the West Bank in response to three European countries recognizing the State of Palestine.

On June 30, however, Smotrich extended a waiver that allows cooperation between Israel's banking system and Palestinian banks in the occupied West Bank for four months, according to Israeli media, according to AFP.

The Times of Israel newspaper reported that the decision on the waiver was made at a cabinet meeting in a "move that saw Israel legalize several West Bank settlement outposts."

The waiver was due to expire at the end of June, and the extension permitted Israeli banks to process payments for salaries and services to the Palestinian Authority in shekels, averting a blow to a Palestinian economy already devastated by the war in Gaza.

The Israeli threat raised serious concerns in the United States, which said at the time it feared "a humanitarian crisis" if banking ties were cut.

According to Washington, these banking channels are key to nearly $8 billion of imports from Israel to the West Bank, including electricity, water, fuel and food.