25,000 Omani jobs target hit - policy is ‘ongoing’: Ministry

Energy Tuesday 24/April/2018 20:55 PM
By: Times News Service
25,000 Omani jobs target hit - policy is ‘ongoing’: Ministry

Muscat: The policy of providing jobs for Omanis ahead of expats will continue even after the government target of 25,000 jobs is reached, an official at the Ministry of Manpower (MoM) has revealed.
The MoM announced that 24,945 Omanis had now found work, after it introduced a ban on hiring expats in 87 professions in January this year and set a target of 25,000 jobs for Omanis by May.
With only 55 jobs left to be found, the ministry announced that Omanis should always be favoured over expats when it came to hiring in the Sultanate, especially when skillsets matched.
The 24,945 Omanis were employed in private sector institutions across the Sultanate between December 2017 and April 23, according to statistics released by the MoM on Tuesday.
Speaking to the Times of Oman, Salim Al Hadrami, Director General of Planning and Development at MoM, said, without giving further details, that the target of hiring 25,000 Omanis would be met this week.
Construction sector
The construction sector hired 32.4 per cent of the workers, followed by the wholesale and retail trade with 14.5 per cent, while manufacturing hired 13.5 per cent, and transportation employed 7.1 per cent.
According to the latest MoM data, 16,884 of those recruited were men and 8,061 were women. Of them, 48 per cent held below diploma degrees, 34 per cent had diploma degrees and 18 per cent had higher education degrees.
The MoM reaffirmed that for the next three months it would focus on providing jobs to those with college diplomas and university graduates.
Regarding the six-month ban on hiring expat workers across 87 jobs, an official confirmed that the ban would continue as long as there were Omanis who were fit for these jobs.
“Providing jobs for Omanis is ongoing even after reaching the hiring target,” the official said, adding, “Most Omanis were hired in the construction sector as it has lots of job vacancies especially in the engineering, technical and administration fields.”
“The ministry conducted a study, which showed that many Omani job-seekers have the qualifications for the 87 professions the ministry barred to expats. Based on this, the ministry decided on the hiring freeze,” he said.
Hilal Al Sarmi, Shura Council member, said, “Based on this data, we hope that the employment goal will increase from 25,000 to 50,000, as the job seekers have exceeded 50,000.”
“Additionally, what needs to happen now is that we have to move to the second phase of the employment plan,” said Al Sarmi
The sectors affected by the ban include IT, media, air traffic, engineering, accounting and finance, technicians, insurance, marketing and sales, administration and HR.
Ali Al Jabri, another Shura member, said, “I still know many people who have been waiting for years to be employed, I hope they will get a chance soon.”
Omanisation in the private sector has increased to 12.1 per cent in 2017, from 11.4 per cent in 2015, according to MoM data.
The highest Omanisation rate is in financial and insurance activity, at 80.4 per cent. In the private sector, clerical professions saw the highest rate of Omanisation at 95.5 per cent. In the government sector, Omanis amount to 87 per cent of the employees.