Arab News, Monday, Aug 29, 2022 | Safar 2, 1444
Female workforce participation rises to 33.6% in Saudi Arabia in Q1 2022: Report
Saudi Arabia: Saudi Arabia’s total
female workforce participation rose to 33.6 percent in the first quarter of 2022
from 20.5 percent in the same period in 2019, when most countries globally saw a
decline in female participation, according to a report released by the Small and
Medium Enterprises Authority, also known as Monsha’at.
In the report, Monsha’at revealed that the female
unemployment rate in the Kingdom fell to 21.2 percent in the first quarter of
this year, while it was 31.7 percent during the same period in 2019.
Signaling Saudi Arabia’s success in filling the
gender gap in the SMEs sector, the report noted that the Kingdom has 45 percent
female leaders in the sector.
“Saudi Arabia’s private sector has been a major
beneficiary of the influx of dynamic female workers, with many female
entrepreneurs grabbing new and emerging opportunities in the accommodation and
food, wholesale and retail, health, and professional support service
industries,” said Monsha’at in the report.
The report further noted that the rise in female
entrepreneurship and workforce in the country is due to various factors which
include regulatory reforms focused on empowering women in the workplace and
creating female entrepreneurs, programs like “She’s Next,” which provides access
to credit and financing, and the Wusool Program which provides 80 percent
subsidies for transportation costs between workplace and home.
The report added that Monsha’at’s Women Dashboard
which provides female entrepreneurs with an exclusive portal for SME support
services has also played a crucial role in elevating the number of female
entrepreneurs in the Kingdom.
“Monsha’at, through its SME services, is
empowering Saudi women across different industries and plays an active role in
the positive reforms at work in the Kingdom. The World Bank has recognized Saudi
Arabia as a top performer in regulations governing women’s rights in business.
Saudi Arabia’s score of 80 far exceeds the Middle East and North Africa average
of 51.5,” Monsha’at further noted in the report.