Overseas jobs for female workers rise in 2011
Wednesday, 4 January 2012
Shah Alam Nur
Overseas employment for women had shown a sign of recovery in 2011 with a rise of 10 per cent, fuelled by job-surge in Middle East, officials said.
A total of 30579 Bangladeshi female workers secured overseas employment in 2011, up by 2873 from 27706 in 2010. State-run Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training (BMET) saw female migrating workers accounted for around 7.0 per cent of the country's total overseas employment in a year.
Taking advantage of the ever-growing demand for residential care-givers and maids in Middle-East and European countries, Bangladeshi female workers managed to gain 10 per cent growth in overseas recruitment at the end of 2011 against the previous year, insider said.
"This is a trend we need to give special attention to," BMET officials said adding they expect even more rapid growth in coming years as they see its prospect is sky-high.
Led by Mediterranean-state Lebanon, Bangladeshi workers female workers' recruitment in United Arab Emirates (UAE), Mauritius, Jordan and Singapore significantly increased in the just-ended year against the previous year.
But the number, however, dropped in the country's traditional labour market - Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), according to BMET data.
Lebanon has recruited 15, 610 Bangladeshi female workers, driven by its growing demand for residential care-givers and maids, who accounted per 55 per cent of the year's total employment.
The country employed 15,116 Bangladeshi female workers in 2010, according to the BMET data. Gaining pace since 2006, Lebanon so far has employed more than 40,000 Bangladeshi female workers.
Union of seven Emirate states-UAE-is traditionally the second largest employer of Bangladeshi female workers. It employed a total of 7,394 female workers in 2011. Gaining pace since 2004 in response to the rapid growth of UAE's economy, the oil-rich Gulf state has so far employed about 45,000 Bangladeshi female workers.
With the expansion of apparel industry in island-state Mauritius, Bangladeshi workers, mostly garment workers, have started to get recruited there since 2006. So far 7,000 Bangladeshi female workers have been employed in Mauritius, added by 1609 new recruits in 2011.
Jordan, another Middle-Eastern state, recruited 4338 Bangladeshi female workers in 2011. New establishment of RMG industries has created the need for trained workers and Bangladeshi female workers have started taking the benefit.
More than 8,000 Bangladeshi female workers have been recruited by Jordanian companies so far, according to the state data.
Female workers' recruitment in the KSA, once a prime market for Bangladesh, fallen sharply to only 166 in 2011. Experts called the losing market a victim of failed diplomacy.
Bangladesh should take immediate measures to regain its strong dominance in sending large numbers of migration workers to major destinations as its global competitors managed to uphold their growth rates in the year, Chairman of Refugee and Migratory Movements Research Unit (RMMRU) Tasnim Siddiqui told the FE.
"The government should give high priority to the sector of labour export as it still remains at the top in South Asia and is the fifth largest in the world," she said.
The government allocated only Tk 700 million in the current fiscal for the sector, which already earned $12.165 billion in 2011, she added.
"This is very unfortunate, the allocation should be increased further for the welfare of the migrant workers," Mrs. Siddiqui said.
The growing female overseas employment demands special attention from the policymakers, she said.
She said the growth of remittance increased by around 10 per cent last year, adding the dream of making Bangladesh a middle-income country will be shattered if the rate declines.
More than seven million Bangladeshi overseas workers remitted $12.165 billion, a record in the country's history, in 2011, marking a 10.55 per cent growth over the previous calendar year.
Overseas recruitment in 2011 recorded a 45 per cent growth compared to the previous year when demand for Bangladeshi workers declined sharply due to a spill-over effect of the 2008-9 global economic meltdown.
Around 567,505 job seekers went abroad in 2011, up from 390,702 of the previous calendar year, according to the Bureau of Manpower Employment and Training (BMET) statistics.
Overseas employment for women had shown a sign of recovery in 2011 with a rise of 10 per cent, fuelled by job-surge in Middle East, officials said.
A total of 30579 Bangladeshi female workers secured overseas employment in 2011, up by 2873 from 27706 in 2010. State-run Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training (BMET) saw female migrating workers accounted for around 7.0 per cent of the country's total overseas employment in a year.
Taking advantage of the ever-growing demand for residential care-givers and maids in Middle-East and European countries, Bangladeshi female workers managed to gain 10 per cent growth in overseas recruitment at the end of 2011 against the previous year, insider said.
"This is a trend we need to give special attention to," BMET officials said adding they expect even more rapid growth in coming years as they see its prospect is sky-high.
Led by Mediterranean-state Lebanon, Bangladeshi workers female workers' recruitment in United Arab Emirates (UAE), Mauritius, Jordan and Singapore significantly increased in the just-ended year against the previous year.
But the number, however, dropped in the country's traditional labour market - Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), according to BMET data.
Lebanon has recruited 15, 610 Bangladeshi female workers, driven by its growing demand for residential care-givers and maids, who accounted per 55 per cent of the year's total employment.
The country employed 15,116 Bangladeshi female workers in 2010, according to the BMET data. Gaining pace since 2006, Lebanon so far has employed more than 40,000 Bangladeshi female workers.
Union of seven Emirate states-UAE-is traditionally the second largest employer of Bangladeshi female workers. It employed a total of 7,394 female workers in 2011. Gaining pace since 2004 in response to the rapid growth of UAE's economy, the oil-rich Gulf state has so far employed about 45,000 Bangladeshi female workers.
With the expansion of apparel industry in island-state Mauritius, Bangladeshi workers, mostly garment workers, have started to get recruited there since 2006. So far 7,000 Bangladeshi female workers have been employed in Mauritius, added by 1609 new recruits in 2011.
Jordan, another Middle-Eastern state, recruited 4338 Bangladeshi female workers in 2011. New establishment of RMG industries has created the need for trained workers and Bangladeshi female workers have started taking the benefit.
More than 8,000 Bangladeshi female workers have been recruited by Jordanian companies so far, according to the state data.
Female workers' recruitment in the KSA, once a prime market for Bangladesh, fallen sharply to only 166 in 2011. Experts called the losing market a victim of failed diplomacy.
Bangladesh should take immediate measures to regain its strong dominance in sending large numbers of migration workers to major destinations as its global competitors managed to uphold their growth rates in the year, Chairman of Refugee and Migratory Movements Research Unit (RMMRU) Tasnim Siddiqui told the FE.
"The government should give high priority to the sector of labour export as it still remains at the top in South Asia and is the fifth largest in the world," she said.
The government allocated only Tk 700 million in the current fiscal for the sector, which already earned $12.165 billion in 2011, she added.
"This is very unfortunate, the allocation should be increased further for the welfare of the migrant workers," Mrs. Siddiqui said.
The growing female overseas employment demands special attention from the policymakers, she said.
She said the growth of remittance increased by around 10 per cent last year, adding the dream of making Bangladesh a middle-income country will be shattered if the rate declines.
More than seven million Bangladeshi overseas workers remitted $12.165 billion, a record in the country's history, in 2011, marking a 10.55 per cent growth over the previous calendar year.
Overseas recruitment in 2011 recorded a 45 per cent growth compared to the previous year when demand for Bangladeshi workers declined sharply due to a spill-over effect of the 2008-9 global economic meltdown.
Around 567,505 job seekers went abroad in 2011, up from 390,702 of the previous calendar year, according to the Bureau of Manpower Employment and Training (BMET) statistics.