New statistics from the Public Authority for Manpower (PAM) and the Ministry of Interior (MoI) reveal that over the past three years a total of 65,521 domestic workers left the household sector after the expiry of their contracts. While some of those who left the household sector could have joined the private sector, the vast majority are understood to have left the country.
On the other hand, numbers from the same two sources indicate that a total of 68,282 domestic helpers were hired in the first six months of the year. This takes the total number of household workers registered with MoI to 718,000, from the 648,000 that were registered at the end of last year.
The nearly 10 percent increase in household workers in the space of only six months does not appear to be a cause for concern among lawmakers clamoring to cut the expatriate population. Household workers now account for 34.2 percent of the nearly 2.2 million expatriate workers in the country.
