Oman doubles budget to help job seekers find work

Oman’s leader Sultan Haitham bin Tariq Al Said on Wednesday ordered a doubling of the country’s job creation fund to $250 million to help speed up employment opportunities for Omani nationals.

Reuters | Sultan Haitham bin Tariq Al Said is increasing Oman's job creation fund to $250 million

The fund will support Tawteen, an online employment platform launched by Oman’s labour ministry in December 2024 with an initial budget of $125 million, to connect private-sector employers with registered job seekers.

“The doubling of the fund will speed up online job creation for Omani nationals by creating a much bigger database of employers in the private sector using more sophisticated features,” said a cabinet statement read out on Oman Television.

The government absorbed a lot of young job seekers this year with the help of Tawteen “but the private sector has been disappointing with job creation”, Abdulla Al-Asmi, a retired general manager at state-run energy company OQ, said.

The civil service employed 16,800 nationals in the first half of 2025, up 4 percent year on year, according to the National Center for Statistics and Information.

The number of expatriates employed in Oman rose 1.5 percent to 1.8 million in the six months to June, lifted by the demands of the private sector, official figures show.

By Saleh Al-Shaibany

September 17, 2025, 2:13 PM