Migrant Workers-Statistics

Statistics

Departures for Foreign Employment by Sex - 1986-2007

Year	Female %	Male %
1986	33	67
1987	34	66
1988	55	45
1989	65	35
1990	64	36
1991	67	33
1992	65	35
1993	65	35
1994	73	27
1995	73	27
1996	74	27
1997	75	25
1998	66	34
1999	65	35
2000	67	33
2001	68	32
2002	65	35
2003	65	35
2004	62	38
2005	59	41
2006	55	45
2007	53	47

Major Destinations for Housemaids (Rank)

	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005
1	SA	SA	SA	SA	UAE
2	Kuwait	Kuwait	Kuwait	Kuwait	Kuwait
3	UAE	UAE	UAE	UAE	UAE
4	Qatar	Qatar	Qatar	Qatar	Qatar
5	Lebanon	Lebanon	Lebanon	Lebanon	Lebanon
6	Jordan	Jordan	Oman	Jordan	Jordan
7	Bahrain	Bahrain	Bahrain	Bahrain	South Korea
8	Maldives	Cyprus	Maldives	Cyprus	Bahrain

Distribution of Manpower Levels of Female Migrant Workers 2000-2007 (Per cent)

Category	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2006	2007
Prof.	0.03	0.07	0.14	0.10	0.14	0.13	0.06
Middle level	0.3	0.46	0.47	1.64	0.65	0.68	0.45
Clerical	0.81	1.11	1.23	1.06	0.55	0.81	0.52
Skilled	9.91	9.26	11.19	11.90	4.93	5.66	5.23
Semi-skilled	-	-	-	-	-	-	0.21
Unskilled	7.67	6.28	5.52	9.92	2.44	3.57	4.43
Housemaids	81.2	82.81	81.45	75.37	91.28	89.16	89.10

Middle East Remittances as Per Cent of Total Remittances (1996-2007)

Year	%
1996	58.1
1997	61.0
1998	61.2
1999	61.7
2000	63.0
2001	61.0
2002	61.0
2003	57.0
2004	56.0
2005	57.0
2006	57.1
2007	58.0

Estimated Stock of Sri Lankan Overseas Contract Workers - 2007

Country	Male	Female	Total
SA	210,160	307,583	527,743
Kuwait	92,211	216,316	308,527
UAE	102,904	135,697	238,601
Lebanon	20,351	96,680	117,031
Italy	15,018	45,209	60,227
Jordan	20,981	56,577	77,558
Oman	13,102	34,103	47,115
Bahrain	13,016	31,824	44,840
Qatar	103,838	29,547	133,385
Cyprus	8,769	17,222	25,991
Maldives	11,954	5,336	17,290
Singapore	4,361	14,881	19,242
South Korea	9,780	2,330	12,110
Hong kong	837	3,175	4,012
Malaysia	3,286	1,828	5,114
Mauritius	1,848	2,386	4,234
Greece	457	490	947
Egypt	333	745	1078
Total	638,256	1,004,199	1,642,455

Departures for Foreign Employment by Sex (2003-2007)

Year	Male (%)	Female ( %)			Grand Total (No)
Year	Male (%)	Housemaid	Other	Total	Grand Total (No)
2007	47.23	47.02	5.75	52.77	217,306
2006	44.65	49.35	6.00	55.35	201,948
2005	40.60	54.26	5.15	55.41	201,948
2004	37.59	51.47	10.94	62.41	214,709
2003	35.51	48.61	15.88	64.49	209,846

(Source: for all statistics: Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment)

Contact CENWOR for additional information
Email: cenwor@slt.lk

Macroeconomic Importance of Worker Remittances

In 2005 worker remittances

from the Middle East were 56.78% of total private remittances

were 19.4% of total current account inflows

were 76% of the trade balance

were 197.3% of loans and grants

were 21.5% of total imports

were 8.1% of the Gross Domestic Product

(Source: Annual Report 2005, Central Bank of Sri Lanka)