In an effort to boost the contribution of Qatari nationals to the workforce, the Qatarisation Law No. 12 of 2024 was announced in September 2024 and came into effect in April 2025. The law stipulates that private businesses, with the exception of companies related to government firm Qatar Energy and hydrocarbons exploration and production, must prioritise Qataris in recruitment processes. Hiring foreign nationals is only permitted where no qualified Qatari national is available. Compliance is incentivised, while non-compliance is met with financial penalties. Qatarisation is not a new concept. Given its importance to Qatar’s economy, the energy sector workforce has been subject to a 50% localisation quota since 2000, while multi-sector Qatarisation has been a focus of the national economic diversification agenda for a number of years.
Time Of Change
According to the World Bank, Qatar’s workforce expanded from 316,000 to around 2m during 1995-2023, with growth driven by economic and industrial infrastructure expansion spurred by the mid-1990s commencement of exploration and production the North Field gas reserve. Qatar’s workforce was 94% foreign as of 2023. That figure drops to 83% when focusing on the private workforce. Considering that in 2025 Qataris accounted for 11.6% of the country’s 3.1m population, foreign workers are essential for the workforce. To that end, Qatar’s Third National Development Strategy 2024-30 aims to raise Qatari participation in the private and semi-private workforce to 20%.
While energy was a major contributor to Qatar’s earlier economic expansion, manufacturing is central to the drive to diversify the economy. A July 2022 PwC report suggests that for the country’s manufacturing sector to meet its goals, around 20,000 new skilled workers are required by 2030. Pharmaceuticals industries accounted for an estimated 45% of the estimated skills gap, with the report suggesting that were that portion alone to be completed, the economic benefits are projected to reach QR4.7bn ($1.3bn) per year by 2030.
Synergies
The government is investing significant resources in developing national education and training systems to boost quality and synergise output with the needs of the labour market. This initiative could help close identified skills gaps and help shield Qatar’s economy from overexposure to a highly competitive international job market. Governments and employers around the world compete for the services of top talent by offering increasingly attractive employment packages and residency-related incentives, presenting the most skilled professionals with fresh and tempting employment opportunities. Meanwhile, unforeseen social, personal and even geopolitical factors could necessitate a foreign worker’s return to their home country. Such factors present employers seeking to invest in long-term workforce development with a greater range of uncertainties compared to employers with a deep pool of local talent. In that respect, the new law could enhance workplace stability for employers and employees alike, increasing cost efficiency and sustainability. Indeed, recruitment costs were estimated between $4700 and $28,000 per individual hire in 2023.
Challenges
While the new regulation should bring multiple benefits to the local economy, it will also present some challenges as organisations work to integrate updates to legal requirements. Workforce audits, implementation of upskilling programmes and compliance management processes will each involve time and financial investment. Meanwhile, a narrower pool of candidates could put businesses at risk of not necessarily hiring the best person for a given role. That dynamic spread across the private sector could negatively impact productivity, so it is of critical importance that the bid to boost the quality of education systems and the training programmes put in place by employers bear fruit. Nevertheless, the new law demonstrates the government’s willingness to invest in the long-term prosperity of its population and its belief in the various components of its economic development agenda.
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