Overseas jobs post steepest fall in July as new work dries up in ME
Monday, 3 August 2009
Mashiur Rahaman
Bangladesh's overseas jobs recorded the biggest fall in July as new employment opportunities in the Middle East and South East Asia squeezed further due to the impact of the global meltdown, officials said Sunday.
Figures released by the government's Bureau of Manpower and Employment Training (BMET) said only 38,003 Bangladeshis found foreign jobs in July, down 55 per cent from 85,038 in the same month last year.
The BMET said the fall was the steepest this year, as new opportunities dried up in the traditional markets while there have been little headway in exploring new job destinations in other parts of the world.
In the seven months to July, 288,903 Bangladeshis went abroad with jobs, a decline of 48.5 per cent from the same period last year, the BMET said.
A top BMET official termed the trend 'stable', arguing that the country managed to fare well given the effects of the global economic recession on the petro-powered nations and South East Asian countries.
"There has been no sign of recovery in our traditional job markets. Still we think the outflow appears stable as other manpower exporting nations like India fared worse than us," he told the FE.
The official said opportunities in Saudi Arabia, where some 2.3 million Bangladeshis now work, plunged to the year's lowest as only 1,142 found work in the world's largest petroleum exporting nation.
This time last year as many as 9,432 Bangladeshi workers went to the Muslim kingdom.
New jobs also dried up in the United Arab Emirates--- the second largest employer of Bangladeshi workers--- as only 19,931 people found job in the Gulf emirate, down more than 50 per cent from the same month in 2008.
Still the UAE remained the top destination of Bangladesh this year, with its seven emirates accounting for more than 50 per cent of the overseas jobs for Bangladesh.
Opportunities in Malaysia remained frozen since Kuala Lumpur imposed a ban on Bangladeshi workers in March in the wake of what it says a global recession-induced decline in its exports.
New job figures in Singapore, Qatar, Oman and Bahrain show sign of upturn, although the countries employed fewer Bangladeshis than they did this time last year.
The BMET officials, however, saw some silver linings in Northern African countries such as Libya, which recruited 2,216, the second highest figure since the country opened its arms late last year,
There have been no new opportunities in the East European or the former Soviet Union countries, despite the government last month despatched a high-profile mission to explore job markets there.
Bangladesh's overseas jobs recorded the biggest fall in July as new employment opportunities in the Middle East and South East Asia squeezed further due to the impact of the global meltdown, officials said Sunday.
Figures released by the government's Bureau of Manpower and Employment Training (BMET) said only 38,003 Bangladeshis found foreign jobs in July, down 55 per cent from 85,038 in the same month last year.
The BMET said the fall was the steepest this year, as new opportunities dried up in the traditional markets while there have been little headway in exploring new job destinations in other parts of the world.
In the seven months to July, 288,903 Bangladeshis went abroad with jobs, a decline of 48.5 per cent from the same period last year, the BMET said.
A top BMET official termed the trend 'stable', arguing that the country managed to fare well given the effects of the global economic recession on the petro-powered nations and South East Asian countries.
"There has been no sign of recovery in our traditional job markets. Still we think the outflow appears stable as other manpower exporting nations like India fared worse than us," he told the FE.
The official said opportunities in Saudi Arabia, where some 2.3 million Bangladeshis now work, plunged to the year's lowest as only 1,142 found work in the world's largest petroleum exporting nation.
This time last year as many as 9,432 Bangladeshi workers went to the Muslim kingdom.
New jobs also dried up in the United Arab Emirates--- the second largest employer of Bangladeshi workers--- as only 19,931 people found job in the Gulf emirate, down more than 50 per cent from the same month in 2008.
Still the UAE remained the top destination of Bangladesh this year, with its seven emirates accounting for more than 50 per cent of the overseas jobs for Bangladesh.
Opportunities in Malaysia remained frozen since Kuala Lumpur imposed a ban on Bangladeshi workers in March in the wake of what it says a global recession-induced decline in its exports.
New job figures in Singapore, Qatar, Oman and Bahrain show sign of upturn, although the countries employed fewer Bangladeshis than they did this time last year.
The BMET officials, however, saw some silver linings in Northern African countries such as Libya, which recruited 2,216, the second highest figure since the country opened its arms late last year,
There have been no new opportunities in the East European or the former Soviet Union countries, despite the government last month despatched a high-profile mission to explore job markets there.