Shamsa al Riyamiyah
The number of expatriates working in the Sultanate has fallen by 14 per cent to 1.44 million by the end of January this year. The decline in expat number is attributed to the replacement and nationalisation policy adopted by the Ministry of Labour, according to data released by the National Centre for Statistics and Information (NCSI).
According to the data, a total of 1.15 million expats work in the private sector, 41,000 in the public sector and 149,000 in the household sector.
The majority of expat workforce occupy engineering and assistant engineering jobs at 568,000 followed by service jobs at 415,000, food and petrochemical jobs (99,000), sales jobs (96,000) and technical jobs (42,000).
As per the qualifications, over 1 million expats are holding certificates below the general education diploma (GED), 242,000 have GED certificates, 33,000 have higher education diploma, 114,000 have bachelor’s degree and 9,000 with master’s and PhD degree.
Bangladeshi nationals account for the majority of the expat workforce at 549,000 followed by Indians at 491,000, Pakistanis at 182,000 and Filipinos at 44,000.
A total of 587,000 expats are based in Muscat Governorate, 207,000 in North Al Batinah, 163,000 in Dhofar Governorate and 102,000 in Al Dakhiliyah Governorate.
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