After getting hard hit for nearly two years with the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic in early 2020, foreign employment has bounced back strongly. The Department of Foreign Employment (DoFE) data shows labor permit approval has surged by 33.51 percent in the first eight months of the fiscal year 2022/23.
The department has issued 540,675 labor permits from mid-July to mid-March in this fiscal year compared to 404,963 permits during the same period of the last fiscal year.
There has been a huge increment in the new labor permit approval in the current fiscal year. The department has issued 348,285 new approvals in the first eight months of the current fiscal year compared to 226,701 during the same period of the last fiscal year.
The departure of Nepali workers for foreign employment started to recover from FY 2021/22 with normalcy resuming in international travel as many countries begin to lift travel restrictions. Similarly, the sharp decline in industrial and business activities causing a reduction in job opportunities in the country has also forced many Nepalis to go abroad for employment.
The number of Nepali workers going abroad for foreign employment declined sharply in FY 2019/20 and FY 2020/21 as major labor destination countries enforced lockdowns to control the pandemic as well as restriction on international traveling.
When the first wave of Covid-19 hit the labor destinations in March 2020, the government halted labor migration barring Nepalis from flying abroad for work in Gulf countries, Malaysia, and South Korea, among others. The outbound labor migration approval slumped to a new low in FY 2020/21. The country recorded a drop of 54.75 percent in labor permit issuance in 2020/21 compared to 2019/20.
While the government approves labor permits for 111 countries that have officially been recognized as labor destinations and allow migrant workers to go there through recruitment agencies, Nepalis have been also allowed to go to other countries after obtaining individual labor approvals. In FY 2022/23, Nepalis migrated to 100 countries with approval from the DoFE.
The six Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, namely Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) along with the ASEAN country Malaysia host a vast majority of Nepali migrant workers. These seven countries have consistently been providing employment to more than 80 percent of Nepali migrant workers since 2013/14 and have also remained as nations with the highest demand for Nepali workers.
In FY 2022/23, Malaysia again became the number 1 labor destination for Nepali migrant workers. The department's data shows 202,674 labor permits have been issued for the east Asian country. The top five labor destinations in this fiscal year are Malaysia, Qatar, UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait.
The DoFE data shows labor approvals for European countries such as Romania, and Croatia increasing along with Cyprus and Malta. Similarly, more labor approvals have been issued in this fiscal for Asian countries like Japan and South Korea.
Outbound Labor migration has reached a five-year high in FY 2021/22 after three straight years of decline with the DoFE issuing a total of 630,089 labor approvals in the last fiscal year.
Between 2008/09 and 2021/22, more than 4.7 million new labor approvals were issued to Nepali migrants seeking to work abroad. These numbers increased consistently, reaching a peak in 2013/14 when more than half a million new approvals were issued.
Growth in remittance
With healthy growth in labor migration, the remittance inflow has also surged by 27.1 percent in the first seven months of the current fiscal year. According to Nepal Rastra Bank, Nepal received remittances worth Rs 689.88bn till mid-February, 2023 compared to a decrease of 4.4 percent in the same period of the last fiscal year. In US dollar terms, remittance inflows increased by 16.4 percent to $5.30bn in the review period against a decrease of 5.3 percent in the same period of the previous year.
Labor permit approval (First eight months)
| FISCAL YEAR |
NEW PERMIT |
TOTAL PERMIT |
| 2022/23 |
348285 |
540675 |
| 2021/22 |
226701 |
404963 |
Country-wise labor permit approval (FY 2022/23)
Top five countries
| Country |
Total |
| Malaysia |
202674 |
| Qatar |
90472 |
| UAE |
74703 |
| Saudi Arabia |
74352 |
| Kuwait |
31624 |
Annual labor permit approval
| FISCAL YEAR |
TOTAL PERMIT |
NEW PERMIT |
| 2021/22 |
630090 |
348868 |
| 2020/21 |
166698 |
72081 |
| 2019/20 |
368433 |
190453 |
| 2018/19 |
508828 |
236211 |
| 2017/18 |
612685 |
354082 |
Remittance inflow (First seven months)
| FISCAL YEAR |
REMITTANCE |
| 2022/23 |
689.88 |
| 2021/22 |
540.12 |
Annual remittance inflow
| FISCAL YEAR |
REMITTANCE (in Rs, in bn) |
| 2021/22 |
1007.31 |
| 2020/21 |
961.05 |
| 2019/20 |
875.03 |
| 2018/19 |
879.27 |
| 2017/18 |
755.06 |
