Profession Saudization Decrees and How They Differ From Nitaqat

A profession Saudization decree is a ministerial decision that reserves named professions for Saudis at a stated percentage inside private-sector establishments. It is not a statute, it is not a certificate, and it is not a band in the Nitaqat programme.

This guide covers the architecture these decrees share: the number the Saudization percentage is calculated on, the level it is measured at, the conditions under which a worker counts, how the fraction is rounded, and what happens when two decrees reach the same profession. The percentage and the dates for any one profession are read from that decree’s own procedural guide and nowhere else. The figure Nitaqat requires of an establishment is a different number, produced by a different instrument, and estimating it is the job of the Nitaqat calculator.

1. Where the text lives: the signed decision and the procedural guide

A localisation decree has two texts, and they are read together. The signed ministerial decision carries its number, its date, its statutory basis, the decision it updates, and the penalty schedule it refers to. The attached procedural guide (الدليل الإجرائي) is where the percentage, the targeted professions and the dates are read.

The guide is not optional guidance. The decision itself states that the guide is “an integral part of this decision”. So the two texts are read together, and neither is asked for the other’s content.

The basis these decrees state for themselves is Article 11 bis and Article 36 of the Labor Law, issued by Royal Decree M/51 dated 23/8/1426 AH and its amendments. What is established here is only that the decisions cite those two articles. The text of the articles, and what they authorise, was not read for this guide and is not explained here.

2. A localisation decree and Nitaqat: a separate obligation the band does not excuse

Does a green or platinum band in Nitaqat excuse an establishment from a profession Saudization decree? The ministry answers this question itself, in the FAQ section inside its own procedural guides, in near-identical wording across them. In English rendering: yes, the localisation decree applies to the professions the decree targets at entity level, and the penalties provided for in law apply regardless of the establishment’s band in Nitaqat; the establishment’s band does not affect the calculation of the localisation percentage.

What follows from that is that the decree is an obligation independent of Nitaqat, applying to the professions it targets, and that the establishment’s band neither excuses it from the decree nor enters its calculation.

The other direction of the question was not found in any source for this guide: whether meeting a localisation decree moves the establishment’s Nitaqat classification, whether headcount in the targeted professions is weighted in the Nitaqat formula, and whether a higher band buys any grace on the decree. None of that may be asserted, positively or negatively.

This guide did find specific places where particular decrees connect to the Nitaqat programme, and this is not a closed list of what is in all the decrees. The guides for physiotherapy professions (51270) and clinical nutrition professions (51277) make their first stage bind all establishments in the main cities plus the giant and large establishments elsewhere, by the Nitaqat size classification, and then make the second stage bind all establishments in all regions. Here the classification decides when the decree reaches an establishment, not how its percentage is calculated. The remote customer service guide (112203) refers, for counting a Saudi worker in Nitaqat, to ministerial decision 61706, a decision this guide did not obtain, so nothing is said about its content. As for the gyms and sports centres guide, its phrase about “having regard to the Nitaqat programme and to the localisation of other professions” is a footnote on a worked example, not a rule of calculation, and that guide’s own FAQ carries the same answer given above: the decree applies to the targeted professions inside the sports outlet regardless of the establishment’s band in Nitaqat. So the rule above does carry for that activity, and what the footnote adds is a reminder that other obligations run alongside.

3. The measurement is at entity level, not at branch level

The unit of account in the cross-cutting decrees is the entity (الكيان). The ministry’s guides define it as the capacity the ministry deals with for the purposes of calculating localisation, representing all branches in the same economic activity owned by a single establishment.

So multiple branches in a single economic activity under a single owner are measured together, and no branch is measured on its own. Some activity-based decrees depart from this and measure at the service outlet (المنفذ) rather than the entity, among them the decree on administrative and support professions in relaxation and personal-care centres, and the decree on the retail outlets of seven economic activities. The level of measurement is read from each decree’s procedural guide and is never assumed.

4. The denominator in the cross-cutting decrees: the targeted professions

In the cross-cutting decrees (العابرة للأنشطة), the denominator is the workers in the professions the decree names, not the establishment’s total headcount. This is a statement about the cross-cutting family, and it is not a general rule of every localisation decree.

Some activity decrees calculate on total headcount instead. The decree on the retail outlets of seven economic activities (208819) sets its percentage at 70% of the total workers in the outlet. The decree on real-estate activities and professions sets its percentage at 70% of the total number of workers. So the denominator is read from each decree’s own guide, exactly as the level of measurement is.

One distinction is worth stating plainly, because the two sentences are one verb apart and say entirely different things. The ministry’s FAQ quoted in section 2 says the decree applies to the targeted professions. That is a statement about the decree’s scope of application. It is not a statement that the percentage is calculated on the targeted professions alone. The denominator is a separate reading, and it is the reading recorded in this section, for the cross-cutting family only.

The worked example in the marketing guide is built on an entity with 80 workers, of whom 16 are in marketing professions. The input to the calculation is 16, not 80.

Applying the percentage set by decision 101319 for marketing professions, which is 60% of the workers in marketing professions, to that input: 60% of 16 is 9.6. By the rounding rule in the next section, the number becomes 10.

That number is subject to what section 6 sets out: a Saudi whose contribution wage falls below the floor set in the marketing decree does not enter the count at all. So the example shows the denominator and the operation. It does not show the effect of the wage condition, and it settles no date.

5. Rounding to a whole worker

The fraction produced by multiplying the percentage by the number of workers is rounded to a whole worker. The wording in the marketing, sales and procurement guides is: 0.49 and below rounds to zero, and 0.5 and above rounds to 1.

The practical effect shows up in small entities, where a single fraction is the difference between hiring one more Saudi and not.

6. The wage floor is a counting condition, not a minimum wage

A number of these decrees make counting a Saudi worker toward the percentage conditional on a floor for his wage. This is a counting condition: a Saudi whose wage falls below it does not enter the calculation of the percentage. It does not set a minimum wage and it does not forbid contracting below that figure. The effect established here is on the counting alone.

The measure is the contribution wage registered with the General Organization for Social Insurance, not the basic wage and not the total wage in the contract. The components of that wage and its limits are set out in the contribution wage at GOSI, and the contributions themselves in the GOSI contributions entry.

Among the floors stated in the guides read:

This is a presentation of some of what was found, not a closed list, and each decree’s floor is read from its own guide.

This guide did not find a wage floor in the guides for administrative support professions, sales professions, procurement professions or project management professions. That is an absence from the reading, not a denial that a condition exists. It may not be written that these professions carry no wage condition.

7. The scope threshold is not one threshold: one worker or more against three or more

The threshold at which an establishment falls under a decree differs from decree to decree, and that difference decides whether the decree concerns you at all:

• The administrative support professions decree (132249) applies to private-sector establishments operating in the Saudi market that employ one worker or more in the targeted professions.
• The marketing (101319), sales (101278) and procurement (77050) decrees apply to establishments that employ three workers or more in the targeted professions.
• The engineering professions decree (93483) states its scope in its guide as all private-sector establishments operating in the Saudi market, with no headcount trigger in that sentence.

Some decrees do not set one percentage for the establishment at all. The ICT professions decree (28889) sets its percentage for each functional group separately, and its scope threshold is counted within a single group rather than across the decree.

The thresholds are not interchangeable. Carrying one decree’s threshold over to another reverses the answer in small establishments: an entity with two workers in sales professions and one employee in an administrative support profession falls under the second and does not fall under the first.

8. The job title and the actual work, together

Applying the decree does not stop at the registered title. The guides state that the decree is applied to the occupational titles and to the worker’s actual work. The profession codes rest on the Saudi Unified Classification of Occupations issued by the General Authority for Statistics, and the targeted-profession tables are keyed to it.

The breach clause reaches assigning a task belonging to a localised profession to a non-Saudi directly or indirectly under any other job title. Changing the title alone does not take the work out of the decree.

9. Monitoring is automated, and its source is social insurance data

Supervision of these decrees is not a report the establishment files. The administrative support guide states that the system applies the formula based on the occupational titles in the Social Insurance database, and then verifies wages and professional accreditation through a technical link with the supervisory bodies.

The effect is direct. The title that is read is the one registered with GOSI, and the wage that is read is the contribution wage. Any gap between what sits in your internal employee file and what sits in the GOSI registration is a gap in the number the ministry sees.

As for the professional accreditation named in that mechanism, seven of the guides read name the body it is taken from, across three authorities. The accounting professions decree (103108) requires it from the Saudi Organization for Chartered and Professional Accountants. The guides for radiology (51273), medical laboratories (51267), physiotherapy (51270), clinical nutrition (51277) and pharmacy (103111) require it from the Saudi Commission for Health Specialties. The licensed aviation professions guide (208818) requires it from the General Authority of Civil Aviation. The counting effect across these seven is the same: a worker who has not obtained accreditation does not enter the localisation percentage. The wording in the licensed aviation professions guide is that non-accredited workers are not counted within the imposed localisation percentages. So it is a counting condition, like the wage condition in section 6. One difference is worth holding: the pharmacy decree binds “the pharmacist” by name, where the four health siblings bind the worker in the targeted professions, so each decree’s own sentence is the one to quote.

These seven are what this guide found, and not a census of what is in all the decrees. Beyond naming the body, everything remains as it was: which professions inside each family require accreditation, on what conditions, by what deadline, and what it requires, none of that was found by this guide, and its conditions are not described here. And a decree in which no body was named in the guides read is not thereby a decree without an accreditation condition. The detail of this is a matter to be referred to the statutory text and the competent authority.

10. The grace period runs from publication of the decision

Between publication of the ministerial decision and the date it is applied there is a grace period. The guides define it as the period between the date of publication of the ministerial decision and the date of its application and enforcement. It starts from publication of the decision, not from publication of the guide and not from the establishment’s awareness of it.

Its length differs by decree. The marketing professions decree (101319), issued 30/7/1447 AH · 19 January 2026, has a three-month grace period and applies from 19 April 2026. The procurement professions decree (77050), issued 9/6/1447 AH · 30 November 2025, has a six-month grace period and applies from 31 May 2026. The administrative support professions decree (132249), issued 17/10/1447 AH · 5 April 2026, has Table (2) binding from the date the decision was issued and Table (3) binding six months later, on 4 October 2026.

11. A new decision is an update of its predecessor

The recent decisions in this family are framed as approving an update of the procedural guide, and each names in its preamble the decision it updates. Decision 132249 for administrative support professions updates decision 52764. Decision 101319 for marketing professions updates decision 57818. Decision 101278 for sales professions updates decision 141713.

The repeal wording comes in two forms. In the sales, marketing and procurement decisions: this decision repeals everything in previous decisions that conflicts with it. In the engineering, administrative support and project management decisions: what conflicts with the provisions of this decision in previous decisions is repealed, save for what is stated in paragraph (third), and paragraph (third) in those decisions is the higher-percentage rule.

The texts of the predecessor decisions named in these preambles were not obtained by this guide. They were read as references, not as texts, so nothing is said about their content.

12. When two decrees overlap: the higher percentage

A single profession may be reached by two decrees: a cross-cutting professions decree and an activity or regional decree. The guides and the signed decisions state that where localisation percentages differ, the higher percentage is applied.

This rule works in one direction: the decree with the lower percentage does not reduce the higher one. Which of the two decrees reaches a particular establishment is read from each decree’s scope of application, not from this rule.

13. Breach: what is settled and what is not

The trigger for breach as stated in the guides is failing to reach the required percentage, or assigning any task belonging to a localised profession to a non-Saudi directly or indirectly under any other job title.

The amount of the fine is not published in this guide, and for a reason worth stating. The decisions do not carry their penalties in their own texts; they refer to a schedule of violations and penalties. A number of these decisions refer to decisions 75913 and 44558, while the schedule of violations and penalties page published by the ministry today carries decision 112377 alone, with no mention of those two. The relationship between a decree’s reference and the schedule published today was not found in any source for this guide. So no fine amount attributed to a localisation decree is published here, and it is not said that a decree referring to an older schedule has been weakened in effect.

What this guide does not settle

• The effect of meeting a localisation decree on the establishment’s Nitaqat classification, in the direction opposite to section 2.
• The conditions of professional accreditation beyond naming the body in the seven decrees in section 9: which professions inside each family require it, on what conditions, and by what deadline.
• The support and employment programmes mentioned in the guides in generic wording. This guide found no programme name, eligibility rule, amount or channel for them, so they are not described here as a benefit that can be valued.
• The text of Article 11 bis and Article 36 of the Labor Law, and what they authorise.
• The fine amount arising from breach of any particular localisation decree, and what becomes of the references to the older schedules.
• The regional decrees, their percentages, their dates and the activities they cover.
• The content of the predecessor decisions that the current decisions update.

Each of these is a matter to be referred to the statutory text and the competent authority.

One warning is worth stating plainly: a profession this guide did not find is not thereby outside localisation. The reading here rests on the procedural guides published by the ministry, and a profession may be reached by an activity decree, a regional decree, or a decree whose guide is not published.

What your system should record

The number the ministry sees is read from the GOSI registration, not from your file. So what is useful to hold in your own employee file is whatever you can reconcile against that registration:

• The occupational title registered with GOSI for every worker, and its code in the Saudi Unified Classification of Occupations.
• The actual work the worker performs, where it departs from his title.
• The contribution wage for every Saudi in a targeted profession, not the basic wage alone.
• The branches inside the entity: which are in the same economic activity and which are outside it.
• The number of workers in each targeted profession, and the total workers in the outlet or the establishment. Your decree’s guide decides which of the two is the denominator.
• The dates of the decrees that reach your professions, and the ends of their grace periods.

Checklist

• Do you know which of your professions are covered by a localisation decree, and which procedural guide you read the percentage from?
• Are you calculating on the denominator your decree’s guide sets: the workers in the targeted professions, or the total workers in the outlet or the establishment?
• Do you know the scope threshold of each decree that reaches you, read from that decree’s own guide, and that some decrees set no headcount trigger at all?
• Do you know which of your branches sits inside the single entity and which sits outside it?
• Does the contribution wage of every Saudi in a targeted profession reach the counting floor in that decree?
• Do the titles registered with GOSI match the actual work?
• Do you have a profession reached by two decrees, and did you apply the higher percentage?
• Are you watching the grace-period end dates, or waiting for the effect of a breach?

Why this turns into a problem

The effect of these decrees shows up late. An establishment is not notified on the day it falls below the percentage. Monitoring is automated from social insurance data, and the breach is known when it happens.

Some sources of error are not revealed by the number alone. One is dividing by another decree’s denominator. An establishment that falls under a cross-cutting decree and then divides by its total headcount sees a compliance that does not exist, in the case where the Saudi share across the whole entity reaches the required percentage while their share inside the targeted professions falls below it. An establishment that falls under a decree whose percentage is on the total workers in the outlet, and then divides by the targeted professions alone, reads a number that is not its decree’s number. The error is borrowing one decree’s denominator for another, not the denominator in itself. Another is a Saudi registered at a contribution wage below his decree’s floor, who is inside the percentage on your file and outside the calculation. Another is a branch counted on its own while it sits inside the entity.

This is where having the facts of an employee in a single file starts to pay. That is what Qoyod HR provides: one employee file holding the contract, the documents and their expiry dates with a reminder before them, an attendance record for every employee, his leave, his salary and his end-of-service entitlements. End-of-service, overtime and leave-balance calculations are built into the system. It is a standalone HR system on its own subscription, and the connection to Qoyod Accounting is now available.

For more guides and templates, browse the HR resource centre.

Frequently asked questions

What is a profession Saudization decree, and where is its percentage read?

A profession Saudization decree is a ministerial decision reserving named professions for Saudis at a stated percentage inside private-sector establishments. It has two texts read together: the signed decision, which carries its number, its date and its statutory basis; and the attached procedural guide, from which the percentage, the targeted professions and the dates are read. The decision states that its guide is an integral part of the decision.

Does an establishment’s Nitaqat band excuse it from a profession Saudization decree?

No. The ministry states in the FAQ inside its procedural guides that the localisation decree applies to the targeted professions at entity level and that the penalties apply regardless of the establishment’s band in Nitaqat, and that the establishment’s band does not affect the calculation of the localisation percentage. It is an obligation separate from Nitaqat, and the band neither excuses it nor enters its calculation.

What number is the Saudization percentage calculated on in a localisation decree?

In the cross-cutting decrees: on the workers in the professions the decree names, not on the establishment’s total headcount. The marketing guide’s example is built on an entity with 80 workers of whom 16 are in marketing professions, and the input to the calculation there is 16. The resulting fraction is rounded to a whole worker: 0.49 and below to zero, 0.5 and above to 1. Some activity decrees calculate on the total workers in the outlet or the establishment, among them the decree on the retail outlets of seven economic activities and the decree on real-estate activities and professions, so each decree’s denominator is read from its own guide.

Is the wage floor in the localisation decrees a minimum wage?

No. It is a counting condition: a Saudi whose contribution wage registered with the General Organization for Social Insurance falls below the floor set in his decree does not enter the calculation of the percentage. Among the floors stated in the guides read are SAR 8,000 in the engineering professions, SAR 5,500 in the marketing professions and SAR 5,000 in the technical engineering professions. Each decree’s floor is read from its own guide.

Does a profession Saudization decree apply to every establishment regardless of headcount?

No, and the threshold differs by decree. The administrative support professions decree (132249) applies to establishments employing one worker or more in the targeted professions, while the marketing (101319), sales (101278) and procurement (77050) decrees apply to establishments employing three workers or more in the targeted professions. Each decree’s scope of application is read from its own procedural guide.

What follows from breaching a profession Saudization decree?

The trigger for breach as stated in the guides is failing to reach the required percentage, or assigning any task belonging to a localised profession to a non-Saudi directly or indirectly under any other job title. The amount of the fine is not published here: the decisions refer to a schedule of violations and penalties, and a number of them refer to decisions 75913 and 44558, while the schedule page published by the ministry today carries decision 112377 alone, and the relationship between the reference and the published schedule was not found in any source for this guide.

Statutory references

This guide rests on the procedural guides for the profession localisation decrees published by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development, and on the signed ministerial decisions attached to them, in particular the guides for administrative support professions (132249), marketing professions (101319), sales professions (101278), procurement professions (77050), engineering professions (93483) and project management professions (41454); and on the FAQ sections inside those guides on the relationship between the decree and Nitaqat and the definition of the entity; and on the rounding rule as the marketing, sales and procurement guides state it.

And on the schedule of violations and penalties page published by the ministry, for the fact that the schedule carried there today is decision 112377.

Dates are printed as the sources print them, in both calendars where both exist, with no conversion in either direction. No percentage for a profession whose guide was not read is published in this guide, no fine amount attributed to a localisation decree, and no regional percentage. Decrees that are updated from year to year should have their dates re-checked from their page at the ministry before anything is built on them.

This guide is a regulatory explanation and not legal advice. In a live dispute or a particular case, the statutory text and the competent authority remain the reference.