441,200 Kuwaitis work in govt sector as labor market hits 3 million mark
- Kuwaiti women continued to play an increasingly significant role in Kuwait’s workforce, outnumbering male Kuwaiti employees for another year. Female Kuwaiti workers reached 251,300 compared to 189,900 male employees.
- India continues to rank as the largest expatriate workforce, accounting for 578,900 workers excluding domestic workers.
- Egypt ranked second with 467,900 workers, followed by Kuwaiti nationals with 441,200 employees.
- Bangladesh, Nepal, Syria, Pakistan, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, and Jordan complete the list of the top ten nationalities.
The labor market in Kuwait continued to expand during 2025, with the total workforce surpassing 3.04 million employees by the end of December, reflecting sustained economic activity and continued demand across both public and private sectors.
According to data released by the Labor Market Information System, the total workforce increased by approximately 97,400 workers compared to the end of 2024, representing annual growth of 3.3 percent.
The figures revealed that the number of Kuwaiti employees stood at 441,200 by the end of 2025, with more than three-quarters of citizens around 76 percent concentrated in the government sector, reaffirming the public sector’s continued role as the primary employer of national labor.
Meanwhile, the number of expatriate workers rose to approximately 1.83 million employees, marking growth of 3.9 percent compared to the previous year.
The report showed that the private sector remains the largest engine of employment in Kuwait, accounting for 58.8 percent of total jobs, equivalent to nearly 1.79 million workers, while the household sector represented 25.4 percent and the government sector accounted for 15.8 percent.
Despite the private sector’s dominance in overall employment numbers, Kuwaiti participation within the sector remained limited, with national labor representing only 4.1 percent of the private sector workforce.
The data also highlighted a notable decline in the share of expatriate labor, which fell to 65.9 percent in 2025 compared to 66.7 percent in 2024, reflecting gradual shifts in labor market dynamics.
Women continued to play an increasingly significant role in Kuwait’s workforce, outnumbering male Kuwaiti employees for another year. Female Kuwaiti workers reached 251,300 compared to 189,900 male employees.
The education and healthcare sectors remained the strongest areas of female employment participation. Women accounted for nearly 77 percent of employees in the Ministry of Education and approximately 63.4 percent in the Ministry of Health.
By contrast, men continued to dominate technical and operational sectors, particularly in state-owned oil, transportation, and port companies, where male employment accounted for nearly 88 percent of the workforce.
The Ministry of Electricity and Water also recorded significantly higher male employment figures compared to female participation.
The report further demonstrated the strong educational profile of Kuwaiti workers, with 55.8 percent of national employees holding university degrees or higher qualifications, compared to only 14.6 percent among expatriate workers.
In contrast, expatriate labor remained heavily concentrated within intermediate education categories, representing nearly half of the non-Kuwaiti workforce.
Within the government sector, ministries remained the largest employer category, accounting for approximately 367,700 workers, including 278,100 Kuwaitis and 89,600 expatriates.
Government agencies with attached budgets employed around 36,800 workers, while fully state-owned companies employed approximately 33,400 workers.
At the economic activity level, nearly half of Kuwaiti employment was concentrated in three main sectors: financial and insurance activities at 20.5 percent, wholesale and retail trade at 13.9 percent, and professional and scientific activities at 12.8 percent.
Meanwhile, expatriate workers remained heavily concentrated in wholesale and retail trade, construction, and accommodation and food services, which together accounted for more than 48 percent of foreign labor employment.
The report also showed that India continued to rank as the largest expatriate workforce nationality in Kuwait, accounting for 578,900 workers or 25.5 percent of the labor market excluding domestic workers.
Egypt ranked second with 467,900 workers, followed by Kuwaiti nationals with 441,200 employees.
Bangladesh, Nepal, Syria, Pakistan, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, and Jordan completed the list of the top ten nationalities working in Kuwait.
In the domestic labor sector, the number of workers exceeded 773,000 employees, representing nearly 30 percent of the labor market.
Female workers accounted for the majority of domestic employment, making up 56.8 percent of the sector.
Asian nationalities continued to dominate domestic labor, with Indian workers representing more than 40 percent of the sector, followed by Sri Lankan and Filipino workers.
The figures underline the continued structural dependence of Kuwait’s labor market on expatriate workers while highlighting ongoing challenges related to diversification of national employment and increasing private sector participation among Kuwaiti citizens.
