Oman seeks to regulate expat recruitment
Deputy PM briefs cabinet about efforts to promote local talent
Regulating recruitment of the expatriate workforce is a collective responsibility of all sectors, Oman’s deputy prime minister has said.
“Regulating recruitments of the expatriate workforce and stopping its increase is a collective responsibility, and all sectors of the state are working for its success,” Saeed Fahd Bin Mahmoud Al Saeed, Deputy Prime Minister of the Council of Ministers Affairs, said at a council meeting on Tuesday.
“We will not allow questioning the ability of our Omani youth to work in terms of experience, noting that experience is gained through training on the job,” Al Saeed said.
He said that the Omani government is working to accommodate youth in various fields. He added that the government has supported the private sector and provided them with all means to diversify the national economy, according to Oman News Agency (ONA).
Meanwhile, the number of Omani job seekers by the end of 2016 stood at 43,858, including 15,831 males and 28,027 females with most of them in the 25-29 age bracket.
As per the statistics released by the National Centre for Statistics and Information (NCSI), the largest number of job seekers are university degree holders.
As of the end of 2016, the number of job seekers grew by 0.1 per cent compared to November 2016.
As per NCSI statistics, the number of job seekers in the age group of 25-29 year stood at 20,869, 12,700 in the age group of 18-24, 7,231 in the age group of 30-34, 2,735 in the age group of 35-39 and 323 in the age group of 40 and above.
Education
In terms of education, the number of job seekers holding a university degree stood at 16,094, general diploma 13,643, university diploma 8,368, below general education diploma 5,657 and masters and doctorate degrees 96.
Oman’s 2017 general budget focuses on austerity measures
and spending cuts owing to the plunge in oil prices. The government spending this year is projected to be 11.7 billion riyals (Dh111.3 billion) and revenues 8.7 billion riyals, leaving a deficit of 3 billion riyals.
Oman posted a budget deficit
of 5.3 billion riyals in 2016, as revenues declined by more than 30 per cent. The actual deficit has turned out to be much higher than projected; it had reached 4.8 billion riyals in the first 10 months of 2016, according to the official data.
43,858 the number of Omani job seekers by the end of last year