Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development said 135,596 workers had benefited from its “Integration into the Labor Market” initiative by the end of the second quarter of 2026.
The initiative allows workers registered as “absent from work” to regularise their status and transfer to another employer. It also enables them to establish new legal employment contracts.
The programme targets professional workers in the private sector. It forms part of Saudi Arabia’s wider efforts to regulate employment relationships and reduce undocumented work in the labour market.
Initiative targets workers with ‘absent from work’ status
The ministry launched the initiative in September 2025. It covers several groups of workers whose employment status has changed.
These include workers who became registered as absent after their legal grace period ended. The initiative also covers workers whose documented contracts have expired or been terminated.
Workers with previous absence reports can also qualify, subject to the programme’s conditions.
To use the initiative, a worker must have spent at least 12 consecutive months in Saudi Arabia before being reported absent or before their employment contract expired.
The new employer must also pay the outstanding work permit fees linked to the worker.
Employers gain access to an existing talent pool
For employers, the programme creates a route to recruit workers already in the Saudi labour market.
The ministry said the initiative can help establishments attract locally available talent. At the same time, it seeks to protect workers’ rights and bring employment relationships into a formal contractual framework.
The programme may also reduce the number of administrative cases linked to absence reports, according to the ministry.
As a result, the ministry expects fewer complaints from workers about absence reports and lower administrative pressure on its departments.
Policy could also support government revenue
The initiative has a revenue component as well.
The ministry expects to collect outstanding work permit fees from workers who have left their previous employment and are transferred under the programme.
The policy therefore links labour-market regularisation with the recovery of unpaid government fees.
For employers, the requirement to settle these fees forms part of the cost of bringing an eligible worker into a new legal employment relationship.
Workers have a 60-day window after absence is recorded
Saudi Arabia had earlier updated its procedures for employee absence from work.
Under the updated process, expatriate workers have 60 days after an absence is recorded to transfer to another employer or leave the country permanently.
If neither action takes place within that period, the worker’s status changes to “absent from work”.
The latest initiative provides an additional route for eligible workers who have reached that status to return to formal employment.
For Saudi employers, the measure could widen the pool of workers available for legal recruitment while giving eligible expatriates a route to regularise their employment status.
