RIYADH: As the Global Labor Market Conference drew to a close in Riyadh, Saudi labor officials said they were assessing policies across global labor markets, using those findings to reform priorities.
Speaking to Arab News on the sidelines of the conference, Ahmed Al-Sharqi, deputy minister of labor affairs at the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development, said: “We look at the topics, we assess the experience, and we assess the outcome of each GLMC edition, and based on that, we tailor the next topics and the topics that still are very relevant in today’s time and world.”
Al-Sharqi described the process as one of incremental development and knowledge-building.
One initiative hosted at the conference was the policy hackathon titled “The First Job Guarantee,” in which experts discussed ways to tackle the transition from education to employment.
This year’s conference addressed trade shifts, informal economies, the evolving global skills landscape, the impact of artificial intelligence on jobs and productivity, and building more resilient labor markets, with a focus on youth.
