The Saudi General Authority for Statistics has reported that 36.7% of the Saudi Arabia’s population is aged between 15 and 34. With the acceleration of the kingdom’s digital economy’s growth since 2017, more than 1 million jobs are expected to be created by 2025, with a focus on technology and innovation. This of course, falls in line with the kingdom’s Vision 2030 plans, which are well underway.
“The transformation that is happening on the back of Vision 2030 is probably one of the biggest opportunities in the world right now,” said Mudassir Sheikha, CEO of Careem, in a statement.
“I have been coming here for 15 years now and over the last five years you can see the change each month on the ground. The pace of change is incredible, and we know that when such change is generated at the macro level, it creates opportunity.”
Last year, the kingdom saw more people joining the workforce as the country’s unemployment rate fell to 9.7%. This was the result of the government reforms as well as the improvement of Saudi Arabia’s arts, leisure, tourism and entertainment industries.
According to a data report on LinkedIn in January 2023, environmental and digital security are some of the most rapidly growing industries in Saudi Arabia.
Sheikha also conveyed that there are a considerable amount of concerns related to services and relevant providers that need to be solved – and with these issues, there becomes space for work opportunities, as he stated, “This provides additional opportunities for the Saudi workforce. There are many problems that still need to be solved. How do you solve those problems? You need to bring the right talent into the market.”
He also added, “With hard work and the right tools great things can happen. From my perspective, there’s probably no better place to be right now than in Saudi today,” he said.
The phrase “digital economy” conveys that Saudi Arabia’s digital and technological revolution rapidly creating new opportunities for markets worldwide to generate social and economic change within the kingdom. Chip Paucek, co-founder and CEO of 2U, Inc., a leading US provider of software for universities said in a statement, “There is a worldwide need for reskilling and upskilling. The OECD estimates that over the next decade 1.1 billion jobs will be radically transformed by technology.” Adding, “What is happening right now with AI is a good example of this and we are excited about what is happening here in the Kingdom.”
