Slight rise in Kuwait's expatriate workers, Indians top list, followed by Egyptians
Expats make up 78.9% of total workforce, reflecting a 2.9% increase in recent months
Cairo: Expatriates working in Kuwait's government and private sectors have increased by 2.9% in recent months with Indians topping the list of workers, according to recent official figures.
Their number rose from 1.64 million in June 2023 to 1.68 million last June, accounting for 78.9 per cent of Kuwait's total workforce, Al Qabas reported, citing government statistics.
A breakdown of the major nationalities at the Kuwaiti labour market at the end of last June showed that the Indians took the lead with 537,430, followed by Egyptians with 474,000.
According to the same statistics, the overall number of government employees reached about 474,000 with Kuwaitis making up 79.6% of them.
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Meanwhile, workers in the private sector totalled about 1.7 million, of which 4.4% of them are Kuwaitis only.
The total number of workers in the government and private sectors excluding the family sector, surpassed the 2.1 million mark at the end of last June, data from the Central Statistical Bureau showed.
The same statistics cited an increase of around 52,000 in the number of workers at the Kuwaiti labour market within a year.
The number of Kuwaiti workers, meanwhile, increased from 447,064 in June 2023 to 451,595 last June. All in all, Kuwaitis accounted for 21.1% of the total workforce.
Foreigners currently constitute 3.3 million of Kuwait's 4.9 million population.
In recent years, Kuwait has intensified efforts to create jobs for its citizens, replace foreign employees, and address the demographic imbalance in the country.