The number of people leaving the country for jobs surged by 44.9 percent during the first nine months of the current fiscal year compared to the same period last year, according to the Department of Labour and Employment Promotion. Topping the list of destination countries was Malaysia, which accepted 65,216 workers, versus 45,569 in the same period last year. Next came Gulf countries Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. In all, 136,131 people left the country to take up jobs abroad between mid-July 2005 and mid-April 2006, compared to 93,942 for the similar period last fiscal year. The number of women going abroad for work more than doubled, increasing by 110 percent.