Only 30% Omani job seekers genuine

Only 30 per cent of the 200,000 Omani job seekers, registered with the Manpower Ministry, were genuine, according to a senior ministry official. According to Dr Younis Bin Khalfan Al Akhzami, acting Executive President of Public Authority for Manpower Registry, more than 60,000 private sector employees quit their jobs after the announcement of unemployment allowance. "Omanisation ratio has dropped in the private sector after 60,000 workers resigned since March last year," he told government-owned Arabic daily ‘Oman'. Al Akhzami added that most job seekers were now looking for work with government although incentives and wages offered by the private sector were far better than before. "The government is making big efforts to employ those who are searching for work, but it is not possible to find public jobs for all," he commented. He revealed that 200,000 citizens have registered for work with the Manpower Ministry since March last year. "Not more than 60,000 of them are genuine job seekers," he believes. He said that those who registered with the authority were aged between 18 and 40. "A great number of them have their own vocations, own active enterprises, students or employees in military and security services or housewives," he pointed out. He further said that those who registered were mainly looking to receive the monthly unemployment allowance of 150 riyal (about Dh1,500) a month announced on Royal orders. "Statistics show that around 45,000 citizens were over 40 when they registered for the first time after the Royal orders were made public and more than 70,000 citizens of the total number of 200,000 registered were over 25 and most of them were women," he added. Al Akhzami believes that international norms should be adopted in future regarding financial assistance to job seekers. He urged those working with private establishments to retain their jobs and not risk leaving the sector. He said that there are clear disparities in minimum wages between the government and private sector and suggested that the problem needed attention.