Nearly 65,000 expatriates have left Oman in first seven months of 2021

Muscat: Nearly 65,000 expatriates have left Oman between January and July 2021, according to data published by the National Centre for Statistics and Information (NCSI).

The NCSI’s population clock, which is updated daily, shows that on Sunday, 25 July 2021, there were 1,690,146 expatriates in Oman, down from 1,745,714 on the first of January this year.

During this time period, the Omani population has increased from 2,735,991 on 1 January, to 2,770,219.

More Omanis have entered the private sector this year as well: by April 2021, there were 255,012 locals employed by private sector companies, a slight uptick from the 254,754 at the end of last year.  47 percent of all insured Omanis working in the private sector earn between OMR 325 and OMR 500 a month, according to NCSI figures.

About a quarter for all privately employed Omanis work in the construction sector (53,731), followed by manufacturing (32,296) and mining and quarrying segments (28,911) of the economy. 19,675 people are employed in administrative and support services, while about 18,110 work in the financial and insurance sector.

The vehicle sale and repair trade employs close to 40,000 Omanis, while the transportation and logistics sector has a little more than 20,000 nationals. About 6,000 Omanis work in the healthcare and social welfare sector, while 7,250 are employed in education.

From the end of 2020 to May of this year, 13,297 expatriate workers left the country.

Of them, 8,219 were in the private sector, about 1,967 were in government jobs, and another 3,111 were under the employ of families.

The construction sector is the largest employer of expatriates in the country, providing employment to more than 370,000 foreign nationals as of May 2021. The automobile industry employs more than 200,000, while nearly 175,000 people work in manufacturing.

The hotel and hospitality sector employs another 100,000 or so people, while the agriculture and fisheries sector has nearly 83,000 expatriates working in it. 66.000 are employed in administration and support services.