Overseas employment up 11.27% in 2025, boosting remittances, reserves
Annual remittance inflow set to hit a record $32b
Bangladesh's overseas employment rose sharply in 2025, with manpower exports increasing by 11.27% year-on-year to more than 11.25 lakh workers, driven largely by sustained demand from Saudi Arabia, according to official data.
Figures from the Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training (BMET) show that the surge in labour migration has boosted remittance inflows, which reached $29.6 billion in the first 11 months of the year and are projected to touch a record $32 billion for the first time by the end of December.
The strong remittance flow has played a key role in stabilising the country's external sector, helping Bangladesh maintain gross foreign exchange reserves at $32.80 billion.
Under the International Monetary Fund's BPM6, reserves stood at $28.11 billion in November, up from $21.35 billion a year earlier, underscoring the growing dependence of macroeconomic stability on expatriate income, largely earned by Bangladeshis engaged in low-paid jobs abroad.
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However, migration experts caution that the latest figures also expose persistent structural weaknesses in the sector, particularly the continued dominance of low-skilled workers and heavy reliance on a single destination country.
They argue that the 2025 data reflect limited progress in upgrading workforce skills, despite rising global demand for trained and certified labour.
Shamim Ahmed Chowdhury Noman, former secretary general of the Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agencies (Baira), told The Business Standard that wages for Saudi-bound, less-skilled workers remain unacceptably low.
"The payment structure is still between Tk25,000 and Tk30,000. The government has yet to renegotiate salaries with destination countries to ensure better earnings for our workers," he said.
He urged the authorities to prioritise large-scale upskilling programmes and diversify labour exports towards Europe and other developed markets, warning that without a strategic shift Bangladesh risks remaining trapped in a low-wage migration cycle despite record manpower exports and remittance inflows.
Migration to Saudi Arabia dominates
Saudi Arabia remained by far the largest destination for Bangladeshi migrant workers in 2025, employing 750,967 workers, accounting for more than two-thirds of total deployment.
Qatar followed with 107,397 workers, while Singapore (70,004), Kuwait (42,657), and the Maldives (39,970) rounded out the top five destinations.
Other notable destinations included the United Arab Emirates (13,690), Jordan (12,229), Cambodia (12,123), Italy (9,297) and Kyrgyzstan (6,650).
Saudi Arabia had recruited a record 628,000 Bangladeshi workers in 2024, the highest number hired by any single country in one year. The further rise in 2025 underscores Bangladesh's growing reliance on the Saudi labour market, raising concerns about vulnerability to policy shifts in a single destination.
Tasneem Siddiqui, a migration expert, told TBS, "The most concerning issue is that if the Saudi market is closed for any reason, there will be a devastating impact on employment generation. Besides, we could not reopen some other major markets like Oman, UAE, Bahrain and Malaysia."
Little shift in skills profile
Despite repeated policy pledges to promote skilled migration, low-value employment continued to dominate in 2025.
BMET data show that, as of 27 December, 43.47% of workers were classified as less-skilled, 34.46% as semi-skilled, 19.13% as skilled, and just 2.94% as professionals. More than 77% of deployed workers therefore fell into the unskilled and semi-skilled categories.
A similar pattern was seen in 2024, when 54.23% of migrant workers were low-skilled, up from 50% the previous year. Skilled workers accounted for 23.62%, slightly down from 24.76% in 2023, while professionals made up 4.59% and semi-skilled 17.56%.
Female migration edges up
Female participation in overseas employment saw modest growth in 2025, with 61,997 women migrating for work in 2025, compared with about 55,000 in 2024.
While the increase is notable, women still represent a small share of total migrant workers, reflecting ongoing barriers related to skills training, job diversification and restrictions in destination countries.
Policy challenge ahead
With overseas employment crossing 1.12 million in 2025, the challenge for policymakers is no longer access to foreign jobs, but improving job quality.
Analysts stress the need for investment in technical training, certification, language skills, and bilateral agreements targeting higher-value occupations. Without such reforms, they caution, Bangladesh's labour migration success will remain quantitative rather than transformative.
Bangladesh sent a record 13.05 lakh workers abroad in 2023, following 11.35 lakh in 2022, with the upward trend continuing in 2024 and 2025, placing Bangladesh among the world's largest labour-exporting countries.
However, labour market specialists warn that growth in numbers has not translated into a qualitative transformation. They argue that continued reliance on low-skilled migration limits wage growth, reduces remittance potential per worker and exposes migrants to greater risks overseas.
