MANAMA, 8 February 2005 — Bahrain’s Labor Minister, Dr. Majeed Al-Alawi, blamed low wages and hard work conditions for the low Bahrainization levels in the private sector and cited reforms to the education and training programs, unifying the job market and reforming the economy as key to addressing the issue.
He also revealed that the Bahraini market was able to create 64,051 jobs in 2004, with a whopping 82 percent going to the foreign labor force, which the minister described as a second labor market that the ministry was trying to integrate into a single market.
Al-Alawi, who was addressing a press conference yesterday, added that 11,512 Bahrainis had been employed in the private sector last year 2,684 of them had been employed through the ministry, which accounts for 23 percent.
The figures also show that only 5,000 of them remained in their jobs, which accounts for 44 percent.
Another 2,283 Bahrainis had been employed in the public sector, which has a 91 percent Bahrainization rate, according to Al-Alawi.
“We have 5,759 people registered at the ministry seeking jobs right now, but these numbers do not reflect the number of unemployed in the market,” he said.
The minister would not disclose the figures of the unemployed citing that the government is conducting a survey to know the exact figures of the jobless, with the results expected to be published in coming weeks.
“As many as 4,506 people registered with the ministry as unemployed last year, 57.7 percent of them men,” he said.
He said 85 percent of them are under 30 and 77 percent of them hold a high school degree or lower.
