More than 3.5 million people are currently employed in the construction and contracting sector across Saudi Arabia, with expats constituting 85 per cent of the industry's workforce, reported The Saudi Gazette.

While the expat workforce figure stands at three million, there are about 511,000 Saudi nationals (accounting for 14.61 per cent) in this sector, said the report citing the Saudi Contractors' Authority (SCA) figures.

Out of this, a total of 152,000 are Saudi women, according to statistics released by SCA for the fourth quarter of 2018.

According to SCA, there were 162,446 contracting and construction establishments in the kingdom in 2018, up from 16,262 the previous year. About 43,000 of them were in Riyadh, 32,000 in Makkah, 24,000 in the Eastern Province and 16,000 in Qassim, said the report.

The SCA said there were 91,000 construction companies, 43,000 specialised contractors and 1,300 civil engineering consultants, it added.