Dubai’s popularity surges among Pakistanis seeking jobs

Staff Reporter

Islamabad: The number of Pakistanis that moved to the UAE for employment in 2022 (up to May) has risen by 128% when compared to the total number that went in all of 2021, as Covid restrictions eased and the Gulf country made efforts to increase its attractiveness to expats.

According to data available with the Bureau of Emigration and Overseas Employment (BE & OE), the number of Pakistanis that registered for employment in the UAE is 62,615 till May, up from 2021’s total of 27,442.

This also coincides with Pakistan’s mission in the UAE working to raise minimum wages of Pakistanis in the country to keep up with the rise in costs of living.

UAE’s growth stood out when compared with the other top four countries where Pakistanis sought employment. While Saudi Arabia saw an increase of nearly 31%, lower than that of the UAE, Oman (decrease of 7%), Qatar (fall of 40%) and Bahrain (decrease of 42%) all saw declines.

As per a 2020 report by the BE & OE, the labour market of UAE is “more open and advanced” for expats as compared to other GCC countries.

“There is high demand of qualified professionals in the sectors such as IT, Civil engineering, financial management sector, healthcare hospitality, tourism and services sector etc,” it said.

In the previous two years, the number of Pakistanis going to the UAE had seen a fall – plunging from 211,270 in 2019 to 53,676 in 2020 and 27,442 in 2021. The fall was attributed to the pandemic taking a toll on economies around the globe as well as the mobility factor. A similar trend was seen in Pakistanis proceeding to other GCC countries as well.