The Sultanate witnessed a whopping 800% increase in the number of people employed in the government sector between 1979 and 2018, according to statistics released by the National Centre for Statistics and Information (NCSI)

This four-decade increase saw nearly 250,000 sector employees by the end of 2018. According to the data, 231,593 people worked in the nation’s government sector in 2018, up from 28,681 people in 1979, reflecting an increase of 807%.

The report added that this number has almost tripled in the last 20 years, rising from 547,741 in 1998 to 1,687,285 people in 2018.

The increase can be attributed to the Sultanate’s progress in diversification through various sectors such as infrastructure, social and economic development, which created more job openings for people to be employed by ministries and other government bodies.

Speaking to a local news source, an official from the Ministry of Manpower said that this rise has prompted the ministry to try and regulate the Sultanate’s workforce in order to create more opportunities for Omanis in the private sector. “Of course, hiring Omanis is a necessity in order to provide them with the opportunities they need, and the ministry also hopes to raise the Omanisation rate in the private sector,” the official was quoted as saying.

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The data on Omanisation shows that the government workforce consisted of nearly 60.4% expats in 1978, while in 2018 the percentage has dwindled considerably with the current Omanisation rate being 84.5% in 2018. Omanisation rate in the private sector was 14.9% in 2018.

Eight government bodies, including Public Authority of Manpower Register and the Oman Human Rights Commission, National Youth Commission, and the National Museum, did not have a single expat worker last year, with most others having fewer than 10 expat employees.

According to NCSI, there were 28,681 employees in Oman’s government in 1979, which rose to 75,109 in 1988, 80,968 in 1998, 118,990 in 2008, and then finally shot up to 231,593 in 2018.

In terms of the private sector also there was a marked increase with people employed rising from 501,543 expats and 46,171 Omanis registered in the private sector’s Public Authority for Social Insurance in 1998 to 794,935 expats and 147,194 Omanis in 2008, to 1,435,153 expats and 252,132 Omanis in the private sector in 2018.