by Naim-Ul-Karim DHAKA, Oct. 1 (Xinhua) -- Some 358,171 Bangladeshis found overseas jobs in the first three quarters of 2009 although fresh employment opportunities for the South Asian country's job seekers continued to suffer the brunt of global financial crunch in major world markets, officials said Thursday. According to statistics of the Bangladesh Bureau of Manpower Employment and Training (BMET) released here on Thursday, overseas jobs for Bangladeshis in the first nine months from January to September this year plunged nearly 48.02 percent compared to that in the same period a year ago. 'Some 358,171 people found overseas jobs in the first nine months until September against 689,000 in the same period of last year,' the BMET data showed. The overseas employment in September this year was also 19.88 percent down from that in previous August month, it showed. Director General of the BMET Khurshed Alam Chowdhury told Xinhua on Thursday although global financial meltdown squeezed overseas jobs for Bangladeshis but the country suffered no big blow like other manpower sending nations. He said early signs of recovery from global recession shows overseas jobs may pick up in some Middle East and Southeast Asian countries, prime destinations of Bangladeshi job seekers, by the end of this year. Of the total overseas employment in the first nine months, the BMET data showed more than two-thirds of Bangladeshi workers found jobs in some Middle East and Southeast Asian countries, including the United Arab Emirates, Malaysia and Singapore. Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agencies ( BAIRA) said overseas jobs for Bangladeshis will continue to rise since the beginning of the next year. 'We're confident that there will be huge demand of workers in the first quarter of 2010 as the major manpower receiving countries are likely to recover by then from the shocks of recession,' said president of the association Ghulam Mustafa. He said the inflow of remittance, which contributes to around 11 percent of the Bangladesh GDP, is unlikely to dip despite the fall in overseas employment keep on tumbling. Despite the drastic falls in overseas jobs since the beginning of 2009, Bangladesh' remittance posted hefty growth as the record number of Bangladeshis who found jobs in 2008 started to send home their earnings. During the last fiscal year (July 2008 to June 2009), official data showed remittance from more than 5.5 million expatriate Bangladeshis totaled 9.68 billion U.S. dollars, around 22.38 percent higher than the same period a year ago. The World Bank had earlier projected that Bangladesh's remittance flow would at 10.87 billion U.S. dollars with 12.3 percent growth in the current fiscal year 2009-10 (July 2009-June 2010) on condition that overseas jobs for the country's migrant workers suffer no big blow. In 2008, a record of 875,000 Bangladeshis found overseas jobs against 832,000 in 2007. 