THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: A host of new benefits promised recently by Saudi King Abdullah will boost the income of many Saudi citizens and may help the kingdom avoid the regime-shaking unrest that has roiled neighboring Arab countries.But the estimated $93 billion of government handouts doesn't address one of the kingdom's most destabilizing problems: the persistently high level of unemployment among Saudi youth, some analysts, employers and job seekers say.
The monarchy has taken a number of steps to pre-empt outbursts of public dissent. It said this week it will hold long-delayed municipal elections on April 23—though elected representatives have little power and share municipal councils with government appointees.
On Friday, the king announced the creation of 60,000 new public-sector jobs, higher salaries for government employees and an allowance for the unemployed. That came on top of pledges made in February, when King Abdullah returned home from a three-month medical absence shortly after Saudi ally Hosni Mubarak was driven from power in Egypt.
The world's largest oil exporter hasn't seen large-scale antigovernment protests, although hundreds of Shiites have demonstrated in the country's oil-rich Eastern province seeking equal treatment and the release of political prisoners.
A high rate of youth unemployment was one of the factors that spurred mass demonstrations in other Arab countries, and with hundreds of thousands of young Saudis entering the labor market every year, Saudi authorities have long viewed unemployment as a problem that could provoke dissatisfaction with the government and push young people toward radical politics. » | Angus McDowall in Dubai and Summer Said in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia | Thursday, March 24, 2011
