In a year, more than 425,000 businesses joined the Saudi labour market, with an average of 1,166 enterprises every day. This was disclosed during Okaz/Saudi Gazette data monitoring based on official reports for enterprises joining the labour market between the end of the first quarter of 2022 and the end of the first quarter of the current year. As per the data, the number of active businesses has climbed by 54.98%, bringing the total number of establishments to more than 1.2 million, up from roughly 775,000 the previous year. Mega enterprises with more than 500 employees increased 10.82% year on year to 1,843 at the end of the second quarter of this year. There were 159 private sector firms and 21 government establishments among the 180 new entries to the labour market. The admission of around 392,000 firms, of which 62 were registered as government entities, increased the number of micro-enterprises with four workers or less by 69.32%.
According to official figures over the previous 12 months, commercial businesses in Saudi Arabia have been categorised into 12 groups depending on the size of their staff, and all groups have seen increase in their numbers. The majority of the rise was seen in private sector establishments, as around 397,000 new establishments joined the labour market, representing a 64.7 percent increase over the previous year.
The insurance payments paid in June 2023 were more than SR10.4 billion, with more than SR2.7 million completed transactions, according to the General Organisation for Social Insurance (GOSI). All of these transactions were completed electronically. GOSI said that the costs of Saudi Arabia's Unemployment Insurance Law (Sanid) exceeded SR76.5 million, while pensions paid by the occupational risks section exceeded SR16 million.
