Saudi Arabia's recent campagin to free up jobs for nationals has resulted in nearly 255,000 Saudis finding jobs in the private sector, the Labour Ministry was quoted as saying.

Saudis now make up 15 per cent of the total work force in the private sector, an Arab News report said quoting the labour Ministry. The total number of employees in the private sector is 1.4 million, it said.

The ministry has reported a decrease in the number of visa requests in all sectors. The Nitaqat campaign has contributed to bringing down the visa requests by 31 percent, it said.

Around 935,000 visa requests were submitted this year as compared to 1.3 million in the same period last year.

The authorities granted about 713,000 work visas. The private sector received 61.3 percent of the visas and the public sector 2.4 percent. The remainder were domestic work visas, it said.