DUBAI: Driving down the number of expat workers in Oman’s private sector is “going to take a long time,” a senior official at the Ministry of Manpower said, highlighting infrastructure projects as areas where expat workers are needed.
Despite ongoing efforts to integrate more Omanis in the workforce, the ministry said the country still needs expat workers for “mega infrastructure projects.”
Expats make up almost 90 percent of Oman’s private sector workforce, which the government has been trying to reduce through its Omanization policies.
“Some professions in the private sector are Omanized and restricted to Omanis, such as administrative professions and some senior leadership positions, such as personnel managers and human resource managers. The Ministry of Manpower also issued a decision to ban the recruitment of a non-Omani labor force in some professions, as well introduced a hike in work permit fees for the expatriate labor force,” Salim bin Nasser Al Harami, Director General of Planning and Development at the Ministry of Manpower, told local daily Times of Oman.
The expatriate visa ban halted the hiring of expats to jobs across 87 sectors which include information systems, accounting and finance, sales and marketing, administration, human resources and insurance.
These efforts resulted in a two percent decline in October, which Al Hadrami said was a “a good and positive indicator.”
The National Center for Statistics & Information in Oman reported that of the 2,041,190 workers in the private sector, only 250,717 are Omanis, with the vast majority – 87.72 percent – being expatriates.
The Omanization drive aims to recruit more of local citizens in private companies — a similar push across the GCC where countries like Saudi Arabia and Kuwait who have also been trying to increase the number of nationals in private sector employment.
Oman ‘still needs expats,’ ministry says
Oman ‘still needs expats,’ ministry says
- The ministry said expat workers are needed because the country is working on “mega infrastructure projects”
- Expats make up almost 90 percent of Oman’s private sector workforce, which the government has been trying to reduce
Qatar CPI falls in January, annual inflation rises 2.28%
JEDDAH: Qatar’s consumer price index climbed 2.28 percent in January from a year earlier, official data showed, while registering a 2.22 percent drop from the previous month.
The decline from December was led by an 11.97 percent drop in recreation and culture prices, alongside decreases in miscellaneous goods and services, restaurants and hotels, clothing, food and housing-related costs, Qatar News Agency reported, citing data from the National Planning Council.
This was followed by miscellaneous goods and services at 3.46 percent, restaurants and hotels at 1.90 percent, clothing and footwear at 1.15 percent, food and beverages at 0.59 percent, and housing, water, electricity, gas, and other fuels at 0.17 percent.
Qatar’s inflation remains relatively contained compared with wider global price swings, helped by stable housing costs and government subsidies. Across the region, trends are mixed, with Saudi inflation easing to 1.8 percent in January while Egypt’s annual rate slowed to 10.1 percent even as monthly prices jumped.
“The annual increase, comparing January 2026 with the same month in 2025, was driven by rises in eight groups,” QNA reported, noting that the largest year-on-year increases were seen in miscellaneous goods and services, which rose 12.40 percent.
Price increases were observed in the transport group at 0.54 percent, followed by communication at 0.32 percent and health at 0.27 percent. Furniture and household equipment rose 0.20 percent and education edged up 0.06 percent, while tobacco recorded no change.
This was followed by recreation and culture at 4.90 percent and clothing and footwear at 3.25 percent. Food and beverages rose 2.87 percent, furniture and household equipment 2.37 percent, education 2.08 percent, housing and utilities 1.21 percent, and communication 0.40 percent.
In contrast, QNA further reported, three groups saw annual declines: restaurants and hotels, down 2 percent; health, down 1.38 percent; and transport, down 0.48 percent, while the tobacco group remained unchanged.
“When calculating the CPI for January 2026 excluding the housing, water, electricity, gas, and other fuels group, the index reached 114.57 points, down by 2.65 percent compared with December 2025, and up by 2.51 percent compared with January 2025,” the QNA report added.
The index — which tracks inflation across 12 main expenditure groups covering 737 goods and services — is based on 2018 as the reference year, drawing on the Household Income and Expenditure Survey conducted in 2017–2018.
