The General Authority for Statistics (GASTAT) released the Labor Market Bulletin for Q3 2024, reporting a Saudi unemployment rate of 7.8%, up 0.7 percentage points from Q2 2024 and down one percentage point compared to Q3 2023.
The overall labour force participation rate for Saudi and non-Saudi workers in Q3 2024 was 66.6%, an increase of 0.4 percentage points from the previous quarter. Among Saudis, labour force participation rose by 0.7 percentage points to 51.5%, showing a year-on-year growth of 0.7 percentage points.
The employment-to-population ratio for Saudis increased by 0.2 percentage points in Q3 2024 to 47.4%, reflecting annual growth of 1.1 percentage points.
Saudi women’s labour force participation grew by 0.8 percentage points to 36.2%, with their employment-to-population ratio rising by 0.5 percentage points to 31.3%. Among Saudi women aged 15–24, labour force participation increased by one percentage point to 18%, while their employment-to-population ratio rose by 0.6 percentage points to 13.6%.
Labour force participation among young Saudi men increased by 1.1 percentage points to 34.6%. For Saudi men overall, participation grew by 0.6 percentage points to 66.9%, with the employment-to-population ratio reaching 63.7%.
Among Saudi men and women in the prime working-age group (25–54 years), labour force participation rose by 0.7 percentage points to 69.4%, and the employment-to-population ratio increased by 0.3 percentage points to 64.8%.