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Saudi Arabia’s Unemployment Drops to Under 12%

Saudi unemployment rate drops in the last government survey for Q1 2020, Asharq Al-Awsat
Saudi unemployment rate drops in the last government survey for Q1 2020, Asharq Al-Awsat
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Saudi Arabia’s Unemployment Drops to Under 12%

Saudi unemployment rate drops in the last government survey for Q1 2020, Asharq Al-Awsat
Saudi unemployment rate drops in the last government survey for Q1 2020, Asharq Al-Awsat

The unemployment rate in Saudi Arabia fell marginally in the first quarter of the current fiscal year when compared to the fourth quarter of 2019, a General Authority for Statistics (GaStat) report has said.

It confirmed, however, that the data do not reflect the ramifications of the coronavirus pandemic.

It said the unemployment rate decreased from 12.0% to 11.8% during the mentioned period. At the same time, unemployment rate among females reached 28.2%, a drop of 2.6 percentage points.

The unemployment rate for men (aged 15 years and above) reached 5.6%, with an increase of 0.7 percentage points, the report said.

The labor force participation rate for the total population (aged 15 years and above) increased by 1.8 percentage points compared to Q1 of 2019, reaching 58.2%.

Labor force participation for men was 80.4%, while the rate of participation of women in the Labor force was 25.4%, data showed, according to the Saudi Press Agency (SPA).

The released data do not reflect the impact of the COVID-19 crisis as they were collected early in the first quarter. The total unemployment rate stood at 5.7% in Q1 this year.

Based on the administrative data, Saudi and non-Saudi employees amounted to 13.63 million individuals. The total number of Saudi employees (males and females) reached 3.2 million individuals, 2.06 million Saudi men and 1.13 Saudi females, the report said.

The participation rate in the labor force for Saudis (aged 15 years and above) fell by 0.5 percentage points to 46.2% compared to Q1 2020. The Saudi male participation rate in the labor force fell by 0.8 percentage points from the previous quarter, reaching 65.8%, while the Saudi female participation rate fell by 0.1 percentage points from the previous quarter, reaching 25.9%.

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Insurance Costs for Ships in Strait of Hormuz Rise Over 60%

 The Strait of Hormuz is a key shipping chokepoint for crude oil (Reuters) 
 The Strait of Hormuz is a key shipping chokepoint for crude oil (Reuters) 
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Insurance Costs for Ships in Strait of Hormuz Rise Over 60%

 The Strait of Hormuz is a key shipping chokepoint for crude oil (Reuters) 
 The Strait of Hormuz is a key shipping chokepoint for crude oil (Reuters) 

Insurance prices for ships travelling through the Strait of Hormuz have jumped more than 60% since the start of the war between Israel and Iran as the conflict threatens shipping in a key chokepoint for crude oil, the Financial Times newspaper wrote on Wednesday.

As of this week, the cost of hull and machinery insurance for ships passing through the strait — a narrow waterway between Iran and Oman, connecting the Gulf to the Arabian Sea — as well as the wider Gulf area had risen from 0.125% of the value of the ship to about 0.2%, according to the world’s largest insurance broker Marsh McLennan.

This pushes the cost of cover for a $100 million ship from $125,000 to $200,000.

Hull and machinery insurance covers damage to the ship itself, as opposed to cargo or third-party liability.

“We’ve not yet seen a missile fired at a ship in the Arabian Gulf, so what it represents is the market saying, look, there’s definitely a heightened level of concern about the safety of shipping in the region,” Marcus Baker, global head of marine and cargo insurance at Marsh McLennan, told the Financial Times.

Prices could rise further, he added.

Ships trying to pass through the strait face a range of dangers, from electronic interference to attacks by the Iran-backed Houthi group and the threat of further escalation by Israel and Iran, said brokers and insurers.

On Monday there was a collision between two oil tankers near the Strait of Hormuz.

While the cause of the crash has not yet been publicized, one ship had transmitted atypical signals about its position, raising concerns about electronic interference.

Baker said insurers were also worried that Houthi militants could widen their attacks, damaging more ships than the US, UK and Israeli-flagged vessels they have generally been targeting.

The market is “concerned about every vessel” travelling through the area because of Houthi attacks, Baker said.

Some insurers could stop offering cover because of the risks, he added, but others might see any pullback as an opportunity.

“War itself, as an insurance product, tends to be...either you lose everything or make a fortune. And many fortunes have been made by underwriters prepared to take a risk,” he said.

Insurance rates for cargo, including oil, were also likely to rise because of the conflict, multiple brokers said, but had been slower to respond.