In 2025, 52.7% of Qatar's workers sat in job groups averaging under QR 5,000

In 2025, 52.7% of workers in Qatar were in job groups whose average pay was under QR 5,000 a month. That is 1,237,359 workers out of 2,346,143 across the nine National Planning Council occupation groups. 4 of the 9 groups average under the line.

The count covers workers in paid employment, 15 and over. Self-employed people and employers are not counted.

The line is a choice made for this article. It is not an official poverty or wage line. Each group gets one combined average wage, with men and women weighted by workers. A group counts as low if that average is under QR 5,000 a month. The share is the workers in low groups divided by all workers in the table.

This is a count of workers placed in groups. The table gives group averages, not individual salaries.

The share of workers in under-QR 5,000 groups was 63.7% in 2020 and 63.9% in 2021. It was 54.9% in 2022, then 53.8% in 2023, 53.6% in 2024 and 52.7% in 2025.

The fall between 2021 and 2022 should not be read as a change in the workforce. Worker counts in several groups jump in that same year:

• Professionals went from 223,981 to 304,439 workers, +35.9%.
• Clerks went from 134,207 to 186,610 workers, +39.0%.
• Craft and trades workers went from 632,966 to 547,169 workers, -13.6%.
• All workers in the table rose 5.4%.

Moves of this size in one year probably come from a change in how jobs are classified. The table does not say which.

After the break, the share changed by -2.2 percentage points from 2022 to 2025.

Workers in under-QR 5,000 groups numbered 1,350,009 in 2020 and 1,237,359 in 2025. Those two counts sit on either side of the probable break, so the gap between them is not a like-for-like comparison.

The table gives one figure per year. The National Planning Council description does not say whether that figure is an annual average or one quarter.

Managers and senior officials are the highest-paid group in 2025, at QR 44,688 a month on average. Elementary occupations are the lowest, at QR 3,427 a month. The top figure is 13.0 times the bottom one.

The two groups differ sharply in size. Managers and senior officials number 61,019 workers, or 2.6% of all workers in the table. Elementary occupations number 313,045.

The 4 groups under the line, lowest first:

• Elementary occupations: QR 3,427 a month, 313,045 workers.
• Farm and fishery workers: QR 3,486 a month, 34,354 workers.
• Plant and machine operators: QR 4,019 a month, 315,655 workers.
• Craft and trades workers: QR 4,513 a month, 574,305 workers.

The 5 groups above the line start with service and sales workers at QR 7,288 a month and 249,593 workers. Clerks average QR 19,205 a month and technicians QR 19,271. Professionals average QR 27,100 a month.

A job group averaging under QR 5,000 a month is not a group in which everyone earns under QR 5,000. Some workers in a low group earn more than the line. Some workers in a high group earn less. Group averages hide the spread inside each group.

The line itself is a choice made for this article. It is not an official poverty or wage line, and a different line would give a different share.

The groups are broad occupation categories. Workers in domestic service and other categories may be classified in these groups, and the table does not break them out.

The time series has limits too. The jump in worker counts between 2021 and 2022 probably marks a change in classification. For that reason the 2022 step in the share, from 63.9% to 54.9%, cannot be read as a real change in the workforce. The 2022 to 2025 move of -2.2 percentage points is the change after the break.

The table also gives one figure per year, with no statement of whether it is an annual average or one quarter. The 2025 total of 2,346,143 workers carries that same uncertainty.