The Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development revealed that it has spent more than SR900 million during the second quarter of 2024 to support provision of employment to Saudi jobseekers. This is through its ‘Tawteen’ program to support beneficiaries through multiple incentives, most notably wage support incentive, training incentive, individual sustainability incentive, and facility sustainability incentive. In a recent report, seen by Okaz/Saudi Gazette, the ministry stated that it has spent about SR4 billion since the launch of the ‘Tawteen’ program, during which around 14,000 male and female citizens have been employed within the program. This brings the total number of the generated jobs to 172,000 since the launch of the program. The Tawteen program has been instrumental in generating employment for more than 38,000 Saudis during the first half of 2024, exceeding more than 88 percent of the target for the year, and more than 92 percent of the total target of the initiative. It also provided training to 10,000 male and female employees. The program targets qualitative and specialized training to bring the total number to about 20,000 male and female employees. The ministry stated that the expected impact of the program is to raise the sustainability rate of Saudis in the labor market, and targets individuals seeking job. The ministry announced about raising the skills of Saudi employees by training more than 30,000 within various qualitative and technical training tracks, and specialized programs to contribute to raising national competencies in the labor market. The program aims to achieve the goals of the national plan for employment in the public and private sectors, as well as to bring down the unemployment rate. The ministry confirmed that it provided many other jobs through regulatory operations on localized activities, which contributed to providing about 9,712 qualitative opportunities during the first half of the current year in the fields of dentistry, pharmacy, health professions, medical devices such as sales and advertising professions, medical devices such as engineering and technician professions, communications and information technology engineering jobs, including professions of engineering, project management, marketing, purchasing, sales, and accounting, in addition to legal professions. The monitoring operations on localized activities aim to reduce unemployment rates among Saudis, increase citizens’ participation in the labor market, and achieve real localization rates for localized activities. It is noteworthy that Tawteen is one of the programs of the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development designed for the employment of Saudi jobseekers who have not previously entered the labor market or have been unemployed in the private sector.