More than 390,000 work visas issued in three months in Saudi Arabia

RIYADH — As many as 390,828 work visas have been issued during the 1st quarter of 2019, local Arabic daily Al-Watan reported on Wednesday quoting a report issued by the General Authority for Statistics (GaStat).

Giving a breakdown of the visas, the report said 229,457 were issued for the individuals representing 58.8 percent, 143,685 for the private sector and 17,686 for the government.

According to the report, until last March there were 2.863 million male and female house helps in the Kingdom of whom about 53.8 percent were drivers.

It said a total of 259,950 work visas were issued for men against 130,878 for the women during this period.

The report said the visas issued for men were 125,178 to work for individuals, 104,279 for the women while 10,638 work visas were issued for men and 7,048 for women to join the government.

The report said a total of 124,134 recruitment visas were issued for men and 19,551 for women to join the private sector.

According to GaStat, there were 1.539 million drivers and 1.256 million housemaids in the Kingdom during the first quarter of the year.

There were also 23,487 cooks, 30,842 house guards, 4,449 private teachers, 2,637 farmers, 2,530 home nurses and 2,104 house managers.