ISLAMABAD: As many as 3.41 million people from the Pakistani workforcemoved abroad for different jobs during the last five years, data shared byBureau of Emigration and Overseas Employment revealed.

During this period, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) has remained the mostattractive destination for Pakistani workers as data showed that over twomillion people moved there for various job opportunities.

United Arab Emirates (UAE) followed the KSA with 1.4 million while Oman wasthe third largest country where Pakistan sent over 0.2 million of its workforce.

The emigration of Pakistani labor abroad saw its peak in 2015 when thecountry exported some 0.95 million of its workforce abroad, the reporthighlighted.

Since then the emigration trend witnessed a sharp decline due to someeconomic reforms in the Middle Eastern countries which resulted into thereturn of huge number of manpower back home, the report added.

According to the official sources here on Friday, gulfisation policy inGulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries was a major reason behind thisdecline as these states had adopted a framework to change their status fromoil based economy to services based economy.

Sources revealed that the workforce is facing competitiveness issues in theinternational job markets as it is not equipped with the skills at par withglobal standards.

They also underlined the need for creating awareness among masses aboutforeign job opportunities by using social, print and electronic media.