Retiring to seek other jobs

Mohammed Nasser al Maawali is excited that his monthly earnings have more than doubled since he opted to seek voluntary retirement. “Now I have my regular monthly pension amount in the bank along with the four-digit salary that I get from my present job,” he says with an elated tone. Mohammed left his job in the Ministry of Manpower a few years ago and joined as a human resources manager in a private firm. “After retiring at the age of 46, my income has more than doubled with my pension amount continuing to accumulate in the bank,” he told Observer.

The option of early retirement seems to be a windfall for many as they seek to find new jobs that fetch them more remuneration.

“Many companies in the private sector are looking for the experience and expertise of these retirees, especially in the human resource and public relations areas”, said Syed al Harrasi, a research scholar at Sultan Qaboos University.

According to data from the National Centre for Statistics and Information, a total of 91,745 persons, including 13,488 females and 78,257 males, have registered with the pension fund after retirement in 2017 for different reasons.

The reasons for retirement ranged from ill-health, death in the family and privatisation of public sector entities.

Of these, 14,029 Omanis have opted for early retirement from different government sectors with half of them under the age of 50.

While 15,414 people sought pension after resigning from their positions, 4,715 persons, including 575 females and 4,140 males, were forced to take early retirement.

“Once viewed by many as a job for life, many people are now leaving government services before the retirement age to find jobs in the private sector, which now offers lucrative salaries,” said Syed.

In Oman, the retirement age is 60 accompanied by attractive pension benefits. According to the NCSI data, lack of health fitness forced 4,783 people to take early retirement to seek pension. The total of number of pensioners in 2017 stood at 438,862, including 141,869 females and 296,993 males, shows the data. While there are 15,963 pensioners who get an amount of RO 2,000 and above, 11,012 are getting pensions varying between RO 325 and RO 400.

Samuel Kutty