| This study will examine the causes of the labor shortage in Saudi Arabia, mainly arguing that the factors behind the labor shortage fall under three categories: political, economic, and socio-cultural. These factors that influence the function, formation, and structure of the labor market, and lead to deficit labor economy include the leading role of the state in the economy, its nature as a rentier state and the effect of that on the labor market, high government spending for development projects leading to an increase in labor demand, negative social institutions toward certain vocations, limited participation opportunities for women in the labor market, lack of regulations in the labor market, and limited job opportunities for national workers in the private sector which highly prefers expatriate workers, because of their lower wages as opposed to those of national workers. It is important to understand the profound impact of oil wealth on the employment level of national workers and consequently the implications of the nature of the Saudi economy as a surplus capital and labor deficit economy at the beginning of the execution of the development plans. I strongly argue that social change coupled with calculated, gradual measures to reform the labor market would lessen the labor shortage because the high number of expatriate workers in recent years reflects, in great part, socio-cultural issues, and attitudes on the part of both private sector and national workers, more than a necessity for development. Throughout the research I will examine the state-business relationship, and how it affects the labor market; I will also study the role of and relationships between, the main four players in the labor market, the two employers: the state, and the private sector, and the two employees: the national workers, and the expatriate workers. As a developing country, why is there an apparent labor shortage in Saudi Arabia? Most developing countries have deficit capital and surplus labor. Saudi Arabia appears to be a country with deficit labor and surplus capital.;This dissertation explores how the surplus capital of the 1970s became one of the causes of the deficit labor. The dissertation also investigates how far the labor shortage was genuinely aggravated by social forces and how far it has been exaggerated in the public relations between the state and the private sector. (Abstract shortened by UMI.). |
