Almost 1,500 government staff left jobs in first half of 2017

MUSCAT: Almost half of all government employees who resigned in the first half of 2017 were under the age of 50, a government report reveals.

Starting new businesses and spending more time with family appear to be the two main reasons for people leaving government jobs before statutory retirement age.

Once viewed by many as a job for life, many people are now leaving government service before 60, the report states. According to data released by the Civil Service Employees Pension Fund, a total of 1,477 employees left their government jobs between January and June 2017, costing the government around OMR60 million.

Resignations

Of these, 75 per cent, or 1,102, resigned. 691 men and 411 women made up that total, the data shows.

Of those who resigned, 47 per cent fell under the age bracket of 40 to 50 years and had taken vol- untary retirement. January witnessed the resignation of 256 people, the highest of any month in the given period.

The official retirement age in the government sector is 60 years and pensions for retired people vary from OMR785 to OMR886.

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

Muscat Province accounted for 21 per cent of the retirees, the highest in the country. Meanwhile, Al Dakhiliya Province came sec- ond with 15 per cent of the retirees.

However, the number of people who resigned from government services this year is actually down compared to previous years.

While 1,102 people resigned between January and June in 2017, 1,158 resigned during the same period in 2016. Of the 1,477 people who left their government jobs, 322 were from the Ministry of Health, 156 from the Ministry of Regional Municipalities and 90 were from the Ministry of Education.