Saudi to facilitate job hunting for women

Saudi Arabia's Labour Ministry has started steps to grant licences to employment agencies allowing them to hunt jobs for women, Al Sharq Al Awsat newspaper reported on Saturday. The ministry hopes this move would reduce the gap between unemployed males and females. As part of many initiatives by the Saudi ministry, concerned companies will create more vacancies for women, sources from the ministry told the newspaper. The sources also highlighted that there are plans to allow Saudi women to work at home next year, which could solve the challenges facing women of gender segregation. Currently, there are 360 licensed employment agencies, but only one of them is authorized to hunt jobs for women. Saudi Arabia has more than 1 million unemployed people, 80 percent of whom are women, according to a report published in March.