Brunei suffers a serious shortage of both skilled and unskilled labor and has to recruit large numbers of these from abroad. It was estimated in 1997 that 60,000 out of the total workforce of 130,000 were foreigners. Many unskilled and manual workers from neighboring Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, and Bangladesh work mainly in the construction industry. The government is concerned that too large a number of foreigners in the country might disrupt Brunei's society and thus only issues work permits for short periods. Despite the need for foreign workers, there are still unemployed Bruneians, since they are reluctant to accept manual work (e.g. in the construction sector) and are not qualified to fill other vacancies. The unemployment rate in 2000 was 5 percent.