Saudi Arabia: Unemployment rate
Unemployed people as a percentage of the labour force, annual average, on each country's national definition.
Official statisticSource figures as of October 8, 2026Sources & methods
- Sources
- International Monetary Fund
- Period covered
- 1999 – 2025
- Source figures as of
- October 8, 2026
- Geography
- Saudi Arabia
- Sector
- Whole economy (not a single sector)
- Seasonal adjustment
- Not applicable
- Transformations
- Views other than the level (changes, averages, volatility) are calculated by CK Economics from these figures
- Revisions
- Replaced with the source’s latest figures whenever it revises them.
- Data status
- Current
Key figures
CK estimate% of labour force · calculated by CK Economics from International Monetary Fund data
- Latest · 2025
- 3.2
- −0.3 pp vs a year earlier1
- 5-year change
- −4.5 pp
- since 20202
- 10-year change
- −2.4 pp
- since 20152
- Record high
- 7.7
- 20203
- Record low
- 3.2
- 20253
- Where the latest ranks
- 0th pct.
- Higher than 0% of the other 26 observations since 19994
- 1Latest observation against the observation one year earlier (for weekly data, the nearest within three days).
- 2Latest observation against the observation five and ten years earlier.
- 3Highest and lowest published observations across the full history shown.
- 4Share of the other published observations that are lower than the latest one, rounded down.
Methodology
Unemployed people as a percentage of the labour force, annual average, on each country's national definition. Figures for the years from the WEO's own year onward are IMF staff projections, labelled "IMF forecast". Earlier years are the IMF's series of reported data, which for some countries include IMF staff estimates for the latest years. Source series LUR. Licence: IMF terms of use (https://www.imf.org/en/About/copyright-and-terms).
Source
International Monetary Fund, World Economic Outlook (WEO October 2026). https://www.imf.org/external/datamapper/LUR@WEO/SAU
All data
| Period | Value | Change y/y |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 3.2 | −0.3 pp |
| 2024 | 3.5 | −0.5 pp |
| 2023 | 4 | −0.9 pp |
| 2022 | 4.9 | −1.2 pp |
| 2021 | 6.1 | −1.6 pp |
| 2020 | 7.7 | +2.1 pp |
| 2019 | 5.6 | −0.4 pp |
| 2018 | 6 | +0.1 pp |
| 2017 | 5.9 | +0.3 pp |
| 2016 | 5.6 | 0 pp |
| 2015 | 5.6 | −0.1 pp |
| 2014 | 5.7 | +0.1 pp |
| 2013 | 5.6 | +0.1 pp |
| 2012 | 5.5 | −0.3 pp |
| 2011 | 5.8 | +0.3 pp |
| 2010 | 5.5 | +0.1 pp |
| 2009 | 5.4 | +0.2 pp |
| 2008 | 5.2 | −0.4 pp |
| 2007 | 5.6 | −0.7 pp |
| 2006 | 6.3 | +0.2 pp |
| 2005 | 6.1 | +0.3 pp |
| 2004 | 5.8 | +0.2 pp |
| 2003 | 5.6 | +0.3 pp |
| 2002 | 5.3 | +0.7 pp |