by Naim-Ul-Karim
DHAKA, Sept. 16 (Xinhua) -- Bangladesh's overseas job boom is showing signs of cooling as weaker than expected employment growth was reported in the first eight months of this year.
Over half a million Bangladeshis found overseas jobs during the eight months of 2018, a decline of about 27 percent over the same period last year, an official who spoke on condition of anonymity, said here Sunday.
The official of the country's Bureau of Manpower Employment and Training (BMET) told Xinhua that a total of 500,694 people found jobs abroad in the January-August period this year, down from 690,046 during the same period in 2017.
Of the total overseas employment in the January-August period of 2018, the BMET official said more than two-thirds of Bangladeshi workers found jobs in Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, Qatar, Oman, Kuwait and Singapore.
He said Saudi Arabia alone recruited 172,379 workers to engage in infrastructure development and the service sector in January-August period.
Malaysia emerged as the second largest destination for Bangladeshi workers in January-August period after the country received 125,819 workers, he said.
The official further said Qatar received 50,952 workers while Oman recruited 47,658 from Bangladesh which is well known across the world as a cheap source for labor.
Sector insiders said demand for blue collar jobs in the Middle East shrank sharply after the top hosting nations in the region squeezed their doors for fresh workers in recent months.
According to the BMET official, overseas job market for Bangladeshi workers marked a robust rise in 2017 after years of slump caused by the world economic recession.
Bangladeshi Minister of Expatriates' Welfare and Overseas Employment Nurul Islam told journalists earlier this year that they had expected 1.2 million overseas jobs for the country's skilled and semi-skilled workforce in 2018.
The expectation came after over one million Bangladeshis found overseas jobs in 2017.
In 2016, the country's overseas employment was more than 600,000, the BMET record showed.
Despite the recent employment slowdown, momentum in inflow of remittances, one of the key sources of foreign exchange for the impoverished nation was maintained.
The inflow of remittances from some 10 million Bangladeshis in the 2017-18 fiscal year which concluded in June reached 14.98 billion U.S. dollars, 17.32 percent higher than the same period a year ago, the Bangladesh Bank data showed.
Most of the remittances came from the Gulf countries, according to the bank.
