(MENAFN- Muscat Daily) Efforts by the government to make the private sector more attractive for the Omani workforce are bearing fruit with 5.8 per cent growth witnessed in the number of nationals working in this sector by end of November 2013 compared to 2012.
According to Public Authority for Social Insurance (PASI), there were 181,964 Omani private sector employees registered with it till November 2013 in comparison to 172,066 in December 2012. In comparison, expatriate workforce has increased by 16 per cent from 1.32mn to 1.52mn in the same period.
Employment in the private sector since 2012 has gone up with an average monthly increase of about 900 employees. November 2013 saw maximum intake at 1,663 employees followed by March with 1,645.
The increase follows the Ministry of Manpower's decision to set the minimum wage for Omanis in the private sector at RO325 effective July 1, 2013.
According to statistics available with PASI:
At the end of 2012, 56,057 Omani private sector employees (or 32.5 per cent of the total Omani workforce at that time), were getting a salary of RO200 and less, and benefited from the July decision and moved up the salary ladder.
Employees in the salary bracket of RO225-RO300 rose unprecedentedly by 97.7 per cent, from 60,164 at the end of 2012 to 118,948 in November 2013.
The rise in salary of workers means that now for a majority of private sector employees (65.3 per cent) the basic salary is between RO225 and RO300.
While the next largest number of employees (25,850 or 14.2 per cent) fall in the bracket of RO300-RO400, and another six per cent (11,070 employees) earn between RO400 and RO500 among others.
In comparison, about three years back in February 2011, 109,860 (62.2 per cent) Omanis in the private sector were getting less than RO180, while 42,439 employees were being paid RO120 or less.
The statistics complement the National Center for Statistics and Information's recent report which said that the average monthly household income for Omani families rose by 83.9 per cent from RO637.53 to RO1,172.26 between 2000 and 2011.
Muscat governorate has employed the largest number of Omanis in the private sector with 67,559 workers, followed by North Batinah with 31,704, Dakhliyah with 21,111 and 17,201 in South Batinah among others.
Among the expatriate workforce, Indians form the largest group (600,349), followed by Pakistanis (223,875), Bangladeshis (96,761) and Ethiopians (44,295) among others.
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