While several countries have witnessed a plummeting women’s workforce participation following COVID, Saudi Arabia has registered an opposite trend. A report released by the Small and Medium Enterprises Authority, also known as Monsha’at, has revealed that women’s workforce participation in the country has gone up to 33.6 % in the first quarter of 2022 when compared to 20.1% in the same period in 2019.
The report noted that unemployment rates among women fell considerably from 31% in the period in 2019 to around 21% this year.
“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,” Arab News quoted Monsha’at in the report.
There has been a rise in female entrepreneurship in the sector with 45% female leaders, because of regulatory reforms and programs like “She’s Next’, which grants resources and training. Alongside these, the Wusool program offers 80 percent subsidies for transportation costs between the workplace and home.
Earlier this year, a survey by PwC linked rise in GDP in the Middle East and North Africa to a gender-balanced workforce.
It said that the Middle East and North Africa region or MENA could increase the GDP by 57% to $2 trillion when women match the employment rates of men in the region.
