Rapid pick up in Jan overseas jobs as KSA boosts hiring
A record 81,434 Bangladeshi workers found overseas jobs in January led by Saudi Arabia, the government data has revealed.
The oil-rich kingdom recruited more than half or 42,272 workers last month. The Arab country hired 143,913 Bangladeshis in 2016. The overall figure represents the highest monthly overseas employment in the last seven years.
The number of outbound jobs was 32,924 in January in 2011, according to data of state-run Bureau of Manpower Employment and Training (BMET). The figure also showed that some 67,738 workers went abroad with jobs in January of 2012, 38,337 of 2013, 34,200 of 2014, 28,333 of 2015 and 63,998 of 2016.
Sector insiders said the number of outbound jobs increased after the resumption of visa for male workers by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). The job figure will rise further soon as Malaysia has also started the recruitment process of workers from Bangladesh.
Talking to the FE, AKM Tipu Sultan, director (emigration and protocol) at the BMET said this year nearly 1.0 million workers would get overseas employment. Apart from the KSA, a significant number of workers will be recruited by Malaysia this year, which is expected to boost the number of country’s overseas jobs.
“We have already started the process of sending workers to Malaysia as it sent a demand for 5,240 workers,” he noted. At present, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, Bahrain are also potential markets for Bangladeshi workers and countries have been increasingly recruiting workers from Bangladesh for the last several years.
According to the BMET data, Oman recruited 10,624 workers in January last, while Qatar 9,382, Bahrain 5,464 and Kuwait 4,994. A total of 757,731 Bangladeshis went abroad in 2016, up from 555,881 in 2015.
