Over 177,000 expatriates work in the Maldives, Maldives Bureau of Statistics has said.
Statistics released by the bureau show 177,585 expatriates were working in the Maldives by end of March. Out of these, 63 percent are from Bangladesh, which amounts to 112,588 workers. The second-most number of migrant workers are from India with 28,840 workers, and Sri Lanka comes third with 15,670 workers. 5,029 workers from Nepal and 3,509 from China also work in the Maldives.
According to the statistical pocketbook, the local labor force is 181,144 workers strong across Maldives, out of which 107,426 are men and 73,717 are women. Out of these, 96,618 people work in the capital while the remaining 87,526 workers are employed in the atolls.
The unemployment rate in Maldives is at 5.3 percent, with 10,127 people of employable age without jobs. The unemployment rate in the Capital Male' area is 6.1 percent while it is at 4.4 percent in the atolls.
25,652 people are employed as Civil Servants, out of which 9,280 people work in the capital. 16,372 civil servants are employed in the atolls. 3 percent of civil servants are foreigners, and are mostly doctors, nurses and teachers.
The most number of people are employed in the tourism sector. While 44,954 people work in the tourism sector, 21,332 are locals. This is equivalent to 48 percent of the tourism industry workforce. Three percent of resort employees are women.
The government is carrying out several programs to reduce the number of expatriates in the Maldives. The government is giving special focus to build capacity in the education and medical sector. However, the number of foreigners working in the Maldives continue to increase year on year.
