Expatriate jobs on the rise in Bahrain
Manama, October 20, 2013
The employment growth among expatriates in Bahrain was more than 40 per cent higher than the locals during the second quarter of the year, said a report.
The expatriate workforce now stands at 509,622, an increase of 8.1 per cent from the same period last year, reported the Gulf Daily News, our sister publication, citing the latest figures released by Labour Market Regulatory Authority (LMRA).
It compares to 152,245 Bahrainis in work, which grew by only 4.5 per cent over the same period, the report stated.
The Labour Market Indicators report revealed the LMRA issued 40,641 visas during the second quarter, of which 32,181 were for work visas, 260 for investors, 386 for temporary workers and 7,814 for dependents.
"The number of renewed visas during this quarter reached 39,754, of which 28,210 were for regular workers, 278 for investors, 210 for temporary workers and 11,056 for dependents," it said.
Transferred
The number of expatriates who transferred from one employer to another rose to 8,451, said the GDN report.
Most new work visa were in the construction sector (29 per cent), followed by the retail sector (22 per cent) and manufacturing (14 per cent), it added.
According to LMRA, the economic sector with the highest number of mobility transactions was hotels and restaurants sector, followed by real estate, renting, and business activities sector and then manufacturing.
"Nearly 51 per cent of mobility transactions in the second quarter were made by small economic units (less than 10 workers)," it said.
The labour cost gap between employing Bahrainis compared to expatriates in the construction, trade, hotels and restaurants and small-scale manufacturing rose by BD23 ($60.6) to reach BD304 compared to the same period last year.
The average monthly wages of Bahraini workers in the private sector was BD364 and BD650 in the public sector. The total number of visas terminated was 24,925, of which 20,057 were for regular workers, 31 for investors, 713 for temporary workers and 4,124 for dependents.-TradeArabia News Service
