MUSCAT: Albeit efforts made by the Ministry of Labour in cooperation with various government departments regarding the replacement strategy in the public and the private sectors, the number of expat workforce increased recording 1.662 million by end of October this year up from 1.409 million by the end of 2021, according to data published by the National Centre for Statistics and Information (NCSI).
The data showed that the total number of expat workforce in the private sector now stands at 1.346 workers while their number in the public sector went down by 33 per cent to 25,000. The number of expats in the domestic sector stands at 290,000 workers.
A total of 23,201 job vacancies were made available in both sectors by the end of the third quarter by means of replacement and direct employment. This included 9,657 jobs in the public sector and 13,544 jobs in the private sector.
The majority of expat workers are concentrated in the engineering sector (696,000) followed by the service sector with 511,000. The industrial and chemical operations and food industries sectors employ 96,000 expat workers.
Unemployment rate increased to 3 per cent by the end of October compared with 1.7 per cent in the previous month. The age group 15-24 is the highest among job-seekers with 13.3 per cent.
The Telecommunication Regulatory Authority (TRA) on Monday received the second cohort of trainees in telecommunications and information technology as part of a year-long programme that aims to qualify the national workforce and build national capacities and competences. At the end of the programme, excelling trainees get one-year work contracts.
