Saudi Arabia to launch work-at-home program for women

Saudi Arabia will launch an updated work-at-home program for women in a few weeks, while its portal will be introduced by the end of December, according to Al Sharq Al Awsat newspaper on Thursday.
The program that was designed to support the work of Saudi women in a way suitable for their family conditions and conservative nature of Saudi society, Undersecretary of the Labor Ministry for Special Programs Dr. Fahad Al Tukhaifi told the newspaper.
The program was launched four years earlier, but was not fully implemented as it did not tackle the legislative, organizational and technical requirements. The program is expected to create new job opportunities for women as well as individuals with special needs by enabling them to get jobs without going to the their workplaces.
The created jobs cover many sectors, including telecommunication, travel agencies, IT, marketing, public relations and journalism.
The program is part of the initiative to reduce the unemployment rate among females, which reached between 32 to 34 percent last year, according to a report in Saydatyi magazine in April, while the unemployment among males was only 6.2 percent in the same period.