Some 75,000 Sri Lankans seek overseas employment in Q1

This is a slight drop from the figure recorded for the first quarter in 2023, at 76,025 people, said the bureau.

Around 75,000 Sri Lankans have left their country for overseas jobs in the first three months of 2024, the Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment (SLBFE) said Thursday.

The SLBFE said 74,499 Sri Lankan workers have left the South Asian country to seek jobs abroad, with 46 percent of them being women.

Workers work at a construction site in Port City Colombo, Sri Lanka, March 27, 2024. (Xinhua/Xu Qin)

This is a slight drop from the figure recorded for the first quarter in 2023, at 76,025 people, said the bureau.

The SLBFE said that in recent months, the Sri Lankan workers mostly tried to find jobs in countries like South Korea, Israel and Japan.

Sri Lankan migrant workers have sent back home 963.8 million U.S. dollars in remittances in the first two months of 2024, becoming the top foreign exchange earner for the country during the cited period.