As many as 2.2 million Indian nationals, representing about 20 percent, are employed by the private sector in Saudi Arabia topping all other nationalities working in this sector especially those from the sub-continent, local daily Al-Madina reported on Tuesday quoting official figures released by the Ministry of Labor and Social Development. According to the ministry, the Pakistanis at 1.8 million occupy second place at the ratio of 17 percent followed by the Egyptians who are third with about a million people representing about 10 percent. The ministry's figures said there were 720,000 Yemenis working in the Saudi private sector representing about seven percent of the foreign work force in this sector. There are 450,000 Filipinos working in the sector representing about five percent of the work force followed by 400,000 Sudanese who make about four percent of the total foreign manpower in the Saudi private sector. According to the figures, there are 38,000 Nepalese working for the private sector with a ratio of 3.5 percent. The figures also said there are about 180,000 Syrians in the private labor market. An economist has, however, doubted the ministry's figures and said they do not represent the exact number of the expatriates staying and working in the Kingdom. "The ministry is speaking about 8.8 million expatriates while their exact number is more than 12 million," said Khaled Al-Maimani of King Abdulaziz University's economy college. He said the number of expatriates in the Kingdom was steadily growing. "They have gone up from 4.7 million in 2005 to about 8.8 million in 2015 and 12 million now," he added.
