More than 7.9 million people were employed in Sudan in 1989, according to an International Labour Organisation (ILO) estimate. In the early 1990s, the employment scene was exacerbated by the 1991 Persian Gulf War, which resulted in the return home of thousands of Sudanese workers who had been based in Kuwait and Iraq, leaving many of their possessions behind. Sudan's support of Iraq was also a factor in the departure of thousands of Sudanese workers from Saudi Arabia. By 2000, the total labor force of Sudan had grown to an estimated 12 million, of which the government counted 9.6 million as actively employed. Approximately 30 percent of the workforce was female.