The UAE government's emiratization policy has shown signs of success, according to newly released figures.
Gulf News, citing a Federal Personnel Department report, said that up to March this year, 44.42 percent of employees in federal government departments were UAE nationals.
The total number of employees at the federal departments was 56,346, of whom 25,032 were nationals and 31,314 non-nationals, said the report.
Emirati women, however, outnumbered men in these positions.
The statistics noted that there were 15,544 women and 9,488 men among the national employees, indicating that national women were still more interested in working in the civil service.
According to the same statistics, out of the total number of non-national employees at the federal departments, 12,409 were women and 18,905 men, while among the total number of employees at the federal departments, both nationals and non-nationals, there were 27,953 women and 28,392 men.
The report stated that the government will exert even more efforts to ensure that all the vacancies available at the federal departments will gradually be occupied by UAE nationals.
According to a Foreign Labor Trends report in 1992-1993, A UAE federal decree was issued in 1984 to guarantee that UAE nationals have priority in obtaining jobs in the UAE.
However, emiratization was proving to be difficult to achieve, according to the report, published online.
“The majority of UAE nationals prefer to work in the public sector where they face a less competitive environment, enjoy better salaries and hours, and receive social security benefits.”
The emiratization goal within the UAE is to have nationals comprise 80 percent of the ministries' workforce. The next most important goal is to increase the number of nationals working in government owned companies and then to place nationals in the private sector, said the report – Albawaba.com
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