What targeted professions are
Targeted professions (المهن المستهدفة) are the professions named in the table of a particular localisation decision issued by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development, and in the procedural guide (الدليل الإجرائي) attached to that decision.
What sets them apart is that, in the profession decisions that cut across activities, they are the unit of measurement of the decision: a decision’s scope and the denominator of its localisation percentage are both calculated on the targeted professions, not on the establishment’s total workforce. So the list is not a set of professions the ministry would like to see filled by Saudis. In those decisions it is the variable on which the calculations are built.
Targeted professions form the denominator in decisions that cut across activities
In the profession localisation decisions that cut across activities, such as those for marketing, sales and procurement, the percentage is calculated on the workers in the named professions alone. That does not hold for every decision: some activity decisions calculate the percentage on all the workers in the establishment or the outlet. The worked example in the procedural guide for the marketing professions decision is set on 16 workers in marketing professions out of 80 workers in the establishment, so the denominator is 16, not 80.
The rounding of a fraction is set out in the guides for the marketing, sales and procurement decisions: a fraction of 0.49 or less rounds down to zero, and a fraction of 0.5 or more rounds up to one whole worker.
Targeted professions are identified by job title and by actual work together
The guides provide that a decision applies to the job titles and to the actual work of the worker. The enforcement provision also reaches the assignment of the work of a targeted profession to a worker who is not Saudi, whether directly or indirectly, under any other job title.
Renaming a role in the establishment’s internal structure therefore does not take the worker out of the table while the work stays the same. The tables of targeted professions are keyed to the codes of the unified Saudi classification of occupations (التصنيف السعودي الموحد للمهن), issued by the General Authority for Statistics. A profession on the table is identified by that code, not by the title an establishment chooses to give it.
The scope threshold for targeted professions differs from one decision to another
No general rule fits every decision. Some decisions start to apply where one worker or more works in the targeted professions; others at three, four or five; one counts in a unit other than workers; and some state no headcount threshold at all. These are examples of what we found, not a complete list of thresholds. Some decisions also measure at the level of the entity (الكيان), which covers all branches of the same economic activity owned by one establishment, and others at the level of the individual service outlet.
An example: the engineering professions localisation decision No. 93483, dated 11/7/1447H (31 December 2025), sets 30% of all workers in the targeted professions at entity level. Its scope is all private sector establishments operating in the Saudi market, with no headcount threshold. The engineering professions decision is set out in more detail in our guide.
Where two decisions cover the same profession, the guides and the decisions provide that the higher percentage applies.
Targeted professions and Nitaqat run in parallel
The ministry addresses the relationship between a localisation decision and Nitaqat directly in the frequently asked questions of its procedural guides. The answer, as the guides print it:
نعم، يُطبق قرار توطين المهن على المهن المستهدفة بالقرار على مستوى الكيان، وتُطبق العقوبات المنصوص عليها نظامًا بغض النظر عن نطاق المنشأة في نطاقات، نطاق المنشأة لا يؤثر على عملية حساب نسبة التوطين.
Our English rendering: yes, the localisation decision applies to the professions it targets at entity level, the penalties provided for by regulation apply regardless of the establishment’s band in Nitaqat (نطاقات), and the band does not affect the calculation of the localisation percentage. An establishment’s Nitaqat band therefore neither exempts it from the decision nor enters its calculation. The word “classification” also carries two meanings here. The occupational classification places a profession in the labour market; Nitaqat places an establishment in a programme.
That answer covers one direction only. In the sources we reviewed, we found nothing on whether meeting a localisation decision affects the establishment’s Nitaqat band, and we state nothing on it. Both instruments stem from Saudization policy. How profession localisation decisions differ from Nitaqat is covered in our guide.
The wage condition for counting a Saudi in targeted professions
A number of localisation decisions provide that a Saudi worker counts toward the percentage only if the monthly wage registered with the General Organization for Social Insurance (GOSI) is not below a stated amount. In the engineering professions decision above, that amount is SAR 8,000.
This is a counting condition, not a minimum wage. A Saudi worker below the amount is not counted in the percentage; the condition, as the guides state it, does not set a wage the employer must pay. The condition is set in the localisation decision itself.
The measurement carries a trap. The measure is the contribution wage (الأجر الخاضع للاشتراك), a defined base made up of the basic wage and the housing allowance, which leaves out allowances such as transport and food. The base is described under social insurance. A gross salary that reaches the amount only through such allowances may have a registered base below it, and its holder is then not counted.
A worked calculation on targeted professions, using the guide’s example
The marketing professions localisation decision No. 101319, issued on 30/7/1447H (19 January 2026), sets 60% at entity level, and its scope is establishments with three or more workers in marketing professions. On the example published in its guide, 16 workers in marketing professions out of 80 in the establishment, the calculation runs as follows:
- The denominator is 16, the number of workers in the targeted professions. The figure of 80 does not enter the calculation.
- Required: 16 × 60% = 9.6.
- The fraction is 0.6, which is 0.5 or more, so it rounds up. The requirement becomes 10 Saudis out of 16.
Had there been 12 workers in the targeted professions instead of 16, the requirement would be 12 × 60% = 7.2. The fraction of 0.2 is 0.49 or less, so it rounds down, and the requirement becomes 7. Four fewer workers in the targeted professions lowered the requirement by three, not by the 2.4 the percentage alone gives, because rounding goes down in the second case and up in the first.
The figures above are our calculation on the published percentage and rounding rule, not a quoted text. Where they differ, the reference is the procedural guide for the decision. The sales and marketing professions decisions are covered in our guide.
Targeted professions across decisions that share no single rule
One way to see that there is no single “localisation percentage” is to set several decisions side by side:
- Marketing professions (101319): 60% at entity level; applies at 3 or more workers in the targeted professions; a grace period of 3 months, with application on 19 April 2026; a stated wage condition of SAR 5,500.
- Procurement professions (77050), issued on 9/6/1447H (30 November 2025): 70% at entity level; applies at 3 or more workers; a grace period of 6 months, with application on 31 May 2026. The guide we reviewed states no wage condition.
- Engineering professions (93483): 30% of all workers in the targeted professions at entity level; scope covers all private sector establishments operating in the Saudi market, with no headcount threshold; a grace period of 6 months, with application on 30 June 2026; a wage condition of SAR 8,000.
- Information and communications technology professions (28889), issued on 18/2/1442H (5 October 2020): 25% for each occupational group separately, the groups being communications and information technology engineering, application development, programming and analysis, and technical support and assistance. It applies where 5 or more workers work within a single group, and the percentage does not apply to a group with 4 workers or fewer in its professions. Small establishments operating in the communications and information technology activity, or in activities in its value chain, are excluded. The stated wage conditions are SAR 7,000 for each of the first two groups and SAR 5,000 for technical support and assistance.
Some decisions are framed as a restriction rather than as a share. The administrative support professions decision (132249), issued on 17/10/1447H (5 April 2026), restricts the work to Saudis, at 100% at entity level, and its scope is all private sector establishments operating in the Saudi market in which one worker or more works in the targeted professions. It runs on two tracks: one table applies from the date of the decision, and a second table carries a grace period of six months ending on 4 October 2026. A reader expecting a share below the whole in this decision is looking for something it does not contain, and a reader who takes it as a single track misses one of its two tables. Our guide covers the administrative support professions decision in more detail.
So the percentages above differ, the scope threshold is three workers in two decisions, five in a third and absent in a fourth, and one decision splits its professions into groups measured separately. A rule taken from one decision and applied to another rests on something the second decision does not say.
A wage condition that is not mentioned is not a wage condition that is absent. What is said above about the procurement decision is that the guide we reviewed does not state one. That describes what we reviewed; it is not a finding about the decision. The same holds for every item we did not find.
The grace period for targeted professions runs from the decision
The guides define the grace period as the period between the date the ministerial decision is published and the date on which it is applied and enforced. It is tied to the decision, not to the date the procedural guide was published and not to the date the establishment learned of it.
It follows that a decision whose guide appeared late does not gain a longer grace period from that delay, and that an establishment’s count of the time it has left starts from the date the decision itself carries. The application dates in the examples above are given individually for that reason: each decision has a set period and a set day, and neither carries over from one decision to another.
Before relying on a list of targeted professions
For any localisation decision, the list of targeted professions, the percentage, the application date, the grace period and any wage condition are set out in the procedural guide for that decision, which the decisions state forms an integral part of them. Penalties are a separate matter. A decision does not itself carry penalty amounts; it points to a schedule of violations and penalties issued by a separate ministerial decision.
A profession missing from a list you have checked does not mean the profession is outside localisation. A regional decision, a decision tied to an activity, or a decision whose guide has not been published may still reach it. In the same way, a guide that mentions no wage condition is not evidence that the decision carries none.
This is an explanation of the concept and of the statutory provisions cited, not legal advice.
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