Female employment figures are real, says MoL

The Ministry of Labor issued a statement recently denying reports that said Saudi women were holding 298,000 fake jobs, mostly in contracting and retail fields. The ministry said that the report had inaccurate data and information and that Saudi women's participation in the work was real in all sectors.

The number of registered Saudi women with social security reached 477,300 by the third quarter of 2015. The ministry has pointed out that there were some activities, which had not been considered appropriate for women, but they have become more attractive for women as contractors, including work in operations, maintenance and construction, and wholesale and retail.
There are several supporting jobs which come under these activities but they are not jobs like administrative work, employees' services and information technology.
The ministry also said that the contracting sector, in all its sections, has 4 million workers, of which 120,000 are Saudi women which is just 3 percent of the total workforce. 
In the various companies of the sector there are from 5,000 to 10,000 female workers. They work both in the construction and field maintenance. There are hundreds of administrative workers. There are a large number of women in these activities as presented by the report.
These activities include construction, manufacturing, wholesale and retail, mining, petrol and gas, quarries, transportation, storage and communication, agriculture, orchards and fishing.
The ministry has said that women were working on production lines of agricultural and animal production companies like the National Company for Poultry Products where there are 700 Saudi women in the factory.
The ministry has categorically denied what has been described as fake nationalization at some facilities.