DUBAI: Oman’s push to create more jobs for its nationals continued on Wednesday with the Council of Ministers announcing the creation of 25,000 for Omani job seekers.
In a statement released through the Oman News Agency, the council said 25,000 jobs would be created for the country’s citizens in both the private and public sectors from December.
The announcement is the latest in the ongoing “Omanization” project aimed at helping the country’s population into work, much like schemes being run by many of the Sultanate’s Gulf neighbors.
Jobs are being created across the board and at all levels. But recently Maimunah Shebani, managing director of The Retail Agency Oman told national daily Times of Oman that more needed to be done to lure more locals into the retail sector.
According to data from the National Center for Statistics and Information (NCSI) while there are 244,924 expats working in retail, that number drops significantly to 38,363 Omanis the report explained.
Shebani said the greatest challenge was to change the mindset of Omanis who had a negative view about working in the retail sector.
“Most Omanis, unfortunately, look at retail as a temporary or transitory job that they do until something better comes along,” Shebani told Times of Oman. “Most jobs being offered to Omanis are low-level jobs, such as cashiers or sales people, because companies also believe that there are not enough skilled Omanis for higher-level jobs in management, so locals don’t seem to develop interest in these positions.
“Many Omanis want to work either in banking or in the oil and gas sectors.”
But she said that they first needed to work their way up from more junior positions – this is not uncommon, it is already well reported that many Omani graduates are doing low skilled, jobs, including driving and waiting in restaurants.
Meanwhile Oman’s rulers have not lost focus of the value its expat population brings to the country and its economy – having recently announced plans to lower the minimum salary expats are required to earn before they can move their families over.
It is hoped the influx of extra expats will bring with them increased spending within the local economy as Oman continues to diversify its sources of income.
