13,900 foreign workers in private, investment sectors in Egypt in 2015: CAPMAS

Hossam Mounir
4 Min Read

The total number of foreign workers in the private and investment sectors in Egypt in 2015 amounted to 13,896 from different nationalities, compared to 13,486 in 2014, an increase of 3%, according to the Central Agency for Public Mobilisation and Statistics (CAPMAS).

In its annual bulletin on foreign workers in the private and investment sectors in Egypt 2015, issued on Saturday, CAPMAS said that the number of foreign workers in the private and investments sectors in Egypt amounted to 5,972—43% of the total number of foreign workers in Egypt. It said also that 57% of the total foreigners working in the private and investment sectors in Egypt had their contracts renewed.

Non-Arab Asian workers represent the majority of foreign workers in the private and investment sectors in Egypt. They account for 4,659 workers making up 33.5% of the total, according to CAPMAS.

It added that the majority of foreign arrivals from Asian countries are from Bangladesh with1,425 workers (30.6%) and India with 1,368 workers (29.4%).

Foreign workers from European countries working in the private and investment sectors in Egypt amounted to 4,365—31.4% of the total. A majority of these workers came from the UK or Turkey, with 814 workers (18.6%), and 621 workers (14.2%) respectively.

According to CAPMAS, the number of workers from Arab countries in the private and investment sectors amounted to 3,677, 26.5%, most of which are from Palestine. Palestinian workers amounted to 2,042 (55%), while those from Syria amounted to 639 workers (17.4%).

The bulletin said also that the workers from non-Arab African countries represented the lowest number of foreign workers in the private and investment sectors in Egypt. The bulletin reported only 157 workers from these countries, representing 1.1% of the total foreign workers in these sectors.

The labour force directorates are the lead in issuing working licences for foreigners in the private and investment sectors in Egypt. The number of licences they issued amounted to 5,921—42.6% of the total licences issued in these sectors—followed by the investment offices with 5,212 licences—37.5% of the total. This indicates that the investment sector has succeeding in attracting more foreigners to work in Egypt, and will continue to do so this year, according to CAPMAS.

It added that the corporate offices come after the labour force directorates in terms of the number of licences they issued for foreign workers with 1,411 licences, 10.2%, followed by the petroleum offices which issued 1,352 licenses, 9.7% of the total number of licenses issued for the foreigner workers in the private and investment sectors in 2015.

According to CAPMAS, 4,721 foreign workers, 34% of the total, work as technicians and specialists in the sectors. Legislators, senior officials, and managers represent 3,528 workers, 25.4%, followed by specialists in science professions with 2,045 workers, 14.7% of the total foreigner workers in the private and investment sectors in 2015.

The bulletin added that the manufacturing business has the majority of foreign workers with 4,324 workers, 31.1% of the total. This is followed by transport, storage, and communications activities which employ 2,321 of workers, 16.7%. Electricity, gas, and water supply have the least number of foreign workers with 118 workers, 0.9% of the total number of workers in the private and investment sectors in 2015.

Share This Article