Saudi Arabia’s total unemployment rate stood at 5.7% in the first quarter (Q1) of 2020, while the labour force participation rate for the total population aged 15 years and over increased by 1.8 percentage points compared to Q1 of 2019, reaching 58.2%, a report said.

Male Labour force participation rate was (80.4%), while the rate of participation of women in the Labour force was (25.4%), according to the "Labour Market Statistics Q1 2020” released by General Authority for Statistics (GASTAT).

Data in these statistics do not yet reflect the impact of Covid-19 crisis as they were collected early in the first quarter, reported Saudi Press Agency (SPA), citing a GASTAT statement.

Compared to Q4 of 2019, Saudi unemployment rate decreased from 12.0% to 11.8% in Q1 2020. Saudi female’s unemployment rate reached 28.2%, a decrease of 2.6 percentage points. Saudi males’ unemployment rate aged 15 years and over reached (5.6%), with an increase of 0.7 percentage points.

Based on the administrative data, Saudi and non-Saudi employees amounted to 13,635,612 individuals. The total number of Saudi employees reached 3,203,423 individuals, comprising 2,066,553 Saudi males and 1,136,870 Saudi females, the Labour Market Statistics noted.

The number of Saudi job seekers, based on the administrative sources, is at 1,015,820 individuals, where Saudi males accounted for 186,969 and Saudi females accounted for 828,851.

The participation rate in the labour force for Saudi males and females aged 15 years and over fell by 0.5 percentage points to 46.2% compared to Q1 2020. The Saudi male participation rate in the labour 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%, compared to the previous quarter.