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5 years ago

Overseas jobs fall by 15pc in seven months

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The country's overseas employment has declined by about 15 per cent in the past seven months of this year compared to the corresponding period last year.

A total of 384,812 workers went abroad with jobs from January to July in 2019 while the number of outbound workers was 450,629 during the same period in 2018.

The Bureau of Manpower Employment and Training (BMET) has made the disclosures.

Overseas jobs have shrunk in the Middle Eastern countries, the key hub of Bangladeshi workers.

Migration experts placed emphasis on the exploration of new job opportunities in different markets to overcome the present dull situation of overseas employment for Bangladeshis.

They suggested enhancing skilled manpower as they are in great demand in the international market.

Recruiters, however, said countries like Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar and Kuwait have reduced the recruitment of foreign workers for sluggish development work there.

As part of its policy reform, the Saudi authorities have engaged more local workers in different sectors.

Even Oman is discouraging semi-skilled workers from Bangladesh. The United Arab Emirates and Bahrain have also stopped recruiting workers from here.

Moreover, Malaysia has stopped hiring manpower from Bangladesh since last September.

There is, therefore, a negative impact on the overall overseas job figures, according to manpower recruiters.

However, the Malaysian market is expected to open very soon, said officials of the expatriates' welfare and overseas employment ministry.

They are now focusing on quality migration to different countries.

Saudi Arabia hired 217,410 workers during the period under review of the current calendar year followed by Oman 43,216, Qatar 39,773 and Singapore 29,029.

The flow of inward remittance increased notably in the first month of the current fiscal year (FY), 2019-20.

Expatriates sent home $1.59 billion in remittances this July, which is 21.20 per cent higher than that of the previous year, according to Bangladesh Bank (BB).

The country received $1.31 billion in remittances during in July of FY '19, the BB data showed.

Bangladesh sent 734,181 workers abroad in 2018 and 10,08,525 in 2017.

An estimated 12 million Bangladeshis have been abroad since 1976, the BMET data showed.

Most of them secured jobs in the Middle Eastern destinations.

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