Overseas employment drops to new low

Overseas employment outflow witnessed a five-month low in May this year, revealing another 57 per cent decline in yearly comparison.
It was a net 8.19 per cent fall against the workers outflow recorded in April of the current year, official said on Tuesday.
As the top job markets for Bangladeshi workers continued to face the brunt of global financial crunch, workers outflow has experienced a significant slow-down in almost every country last month, he said.
Bureau of Manpower Employment and Training (BMET) sources said some 35,850 people have found jobs abroad in May this year, down from 82,739 in the same month in 2008.
During the first five months of the year 212,332 people have found overseas jobs, a decline of 44 per cent over the same period last year, BMET statistics show.
The drop was the aftermath of global financial recession that has suspended fresh recruitments in the oil-rich Middle East and the export-dependent economies in South East Asia, a senior official of the BMET told the FE.
“Both the regions have been hit hard by the global economic recession, forcing the companies to halt new employment,” he said.
According to the monthly overseas employment updates, all the prime employment markets for Bangladeshi workers in Middle East including Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Lebanon, Jordan and Libya have reported a narrow decline last month.
Similar decline has also been witnessed in Malaysian and Singaporean job markets during the period, the BMET report said.
“We are experiencing a hard time in overseas employment but the worst is expectedly over,” secretary general of Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agencies (BAIRA) Kazi Md Mofizur Rahman told the FE.
Good news from Middle East and South East Asian countries are expected in the coming days, he said.
Amendment to notorious Kafala (sponsorship) law for migrant workers in the Middle East was underway. Besides, newly elected government in Malaysia is to ease restriction on Bangladeshi workers, the BAIRA secretary general said.
“We expect to witness the overseas employment growth rate in positive territory from the coming months, he added.

Courtesy of The Financial Express