Kuwait expatriate workforce falls

Global economic downturn causes decline of foreign workforce for second year.

KUWAIT CITY - Kuwait's expatriate workforce dipped last year for the second time in a row, impacted by the global economic downturn, according to official figures on Sunday.

Kuwait's foreign workforce has been declining since 2008.

The expatriate labor force went from 1.77 million in 2007 to 1.75 million the year after and 1.74 million last year, according to the report. The latest decline of 0.6 percent was marginal.

But the total expatriate population, including workers' families, rose slightly last year by 11,000 to 2.37 million, a similar rise to 2008 but a massive slide from the previous years.

Kuwait's expatriate population had increased by 150,000 to 200,000 every year since 2003 due to an economic boom triggered by high oil prices that hit a record high of 147 dollars a barrel in mid 2008.

Between 2004 and 2007, the number of expatriates rose by 737,000, mainly due to overseas recruitment. But they increased by just 26,000 over the past two years.

Oil revenues provide around 94 percent of total income for Kuwait, a major producer inside the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.

Expatriates still make up 67.9 percent of the total population of 3.49 million, with Kuwaitis accounting for 32.1 percent, or 1.2 million, PACI statistics showed.

The economic slowdown, which has prompted a raft of Kuwaiti firms to lay off foreign workers, saw the citizen workforce rise to 351,000 last year from 336,000 at the end of 2008.

About 270,000, or almost 77 percent, were employed in the public sector, while Kuwaitis made up just four percent of the 1.67 million private sector work force.

Asians, who number 1.32 million, make up the largest part of the expatriate population, followed by 984,000 Arabs, and a total 34,500 Europeans, Americans and Australians.

Source: Middle East Online.
Link: http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=37957.