The country's overseas employment has declined more than 25 per cent in the first quarter (Q1) of this calendar year (2018) over its corresponding period, officials statistics showed.
It has happened, as job opportunities have shrunk in the key destination countries, mainly Saudi Arabia.
According to Bureau of Manpower Employment and Training (BMET), a total of 204,201 Bangladeshi workers went abroad with jobs during the January-March period of 2018, whereas 272,973 workers got overseas jobs in the matching period of 2017.
Sector insiders said if the present trend continues, the target of sending workers set by the government is unlikely to be achieved.
Ministry of Expatriates' Welfare and Overseas Employment earlier announced that they will send 1.2 million workers in this year.
According to the official statistics, the outflow of Bangladeshi workers has been declining over the last two months. During this period the number of recruitment faced a slowdown in Middle-East.
The monthly employment figure decreased drastically in March, as only 62,973 workers went overseas in the month. Some 106,501 Bangladeshi workers went abroad in the same month in 2017.
Sector insiders said Saudi Arabia, the key job destination for Bangladeshi workers, slashed hiring workers, which has created a negative impact on the country's overall overseas employment.
Manpower recruitment by Saudi Arabia dropped by at least 50 per cent in the last two months. The oil-rich Arab country recruited 119,048 workers from Bangladesh in the February-March period of 2017, whereas it hired 45,478 workers in the last two months of 2018.
Besides, other important manpower receiving countries, including Oman, Bahrain, Qatar and Singapore, also recruited lower number of workers from Bangladesh.
Based on Saudi Arabian market, Bangladesh sent 1.0 million workers abroad in 2017, the highest in the history of overseas job sector in the country.
Of the total employment figure last year, Saudi Arabia recruited 551,308 workers alone, BMET data showed.
The Saudi government has imposed a ban on jobs of 12 categories for foreign workers in early January, including car and motorbike showrooms, readymade clothes stores, home and office furniture store, home appliances and kitchen utensils stores, electronics stores, watches and clocks store, and optics stores etc.
Besides, implementation of various development projects has been going on at a snail's pace there because of oil price fall. For these reasons, many of the workers, who are going there with individual visa or family and friends visas, are not getting jobs.
Apart from the Saudi restriction, Bangladesh government has taken a strategy for sending quality workers, both male and female, to the Arab country, which also has an impact on overseas employment growth, sources said.
Many aspirant workers are now getting discouraged to go to Saudi Arabia, as they come to know that the foreign workers in the Arab country are not getting ample jobs, said Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agencies (BAIRA) President Benjir Ahmed.
But the outflow of workers to Malaysia has increased. So the target of overseas employment can be achieved, he added.
The officials concerned said at present they are giving more emphasis on skilled and quality migration than the number of workers. The target can be achieved, as they are exploring new job markets also.
Between 1976 and 2017 more than 11 million workers went abroad from the country, of whom about 700,000 are women. Most of the workers are working in Middle East as low-skilled workers.
Bangladesh sends workers to 165 countries, of which 20 are major destinations.
Meanwhile, the flow of inward remittance has increased in March. The remittance inflow was estimated at $1.30 billion in March 2018, up by $151.46 million from that of the previous month. In February 2018, the amount stood at $1.15 billion. It was $1.08 billion in March 2017, according to the central bank's latest statistics.
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