Kuwaitis in Workforce Drop to 16.8% in 2022

The percentage of Kuwaiti workers out of the total number of workers in the country decreased to 16.8 percent by December 2022, down from around 18 percent in 2021, according to the latest statistics on population and employment published by the Public Authority for Civil Information (PACI).

This, however, comes despite an increase in the number of Kuwaitis in the workforce by 12,000 to reach a total of 481,000 nationals at the end of last year.

The total workforce in Kuwait's labor market stood at 2.86 million at the end of 2022, 32 percent of which are Kuwaitis, while 74 percent are non-Kuwaitis. 

On the other hand, unemployed Kuwaitis came in at 26,000 people, or 5.4 percent of the total number of Kuwaiti workers, up from 25,400 at the end of 2021.