With these developments, the departure of housemaids, who continued to dominate the Sri Lankan foreign employment industry decreased further slightly by 0.5 % to 113,087 in 2010. Similarly, the relative significance of housemaids in the total departures for foreign employment also decreased to 42.4 % in 2010 from 46 % in 2009.
The large numbers of semi skilled workers had reduced over the last year with a remarkable increased migration for foreign employment being registered for professionals, middle level, clerical and related workers, and skilled labour as well as for unskilled labour categories.
A remarkable increase in the number of departures in respect of skilled labour (by 9,793) and unskilled labour (by 9,725) was observed. However, the semi-skilled labour category decreased by 1,158 between the two years. Despite the increase in departures of the middle level employees, its relative significance in the total departures declined marginally during the year.
The total number of departures for foreign employment in 2010 increased by 7.8 % to 266,445 compared to 247,126 departures in 2009.
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