Labour Minister Jameel bin Mohammed Ali Humaidan said the overall growth rate of manpower registered in the Kingdom during the second quarter of 2015 reached 6.5%.

Minister Humaidan said the number of national workers registered with the General Organisation of Social Insurance (GOSI) increased to more than 158,400 by the end of the second quarter 2015. Meanwhile the total number of expatriate workers was approximately 551,900.

The minister presented his report during the Cabinet regular meeting on Monday on monitoring and controlling variables of key labour market indices.

He said the total number of workforce in Bahrain by the end of the second quarter reached 710,296 with an annual increase of 6.5% compared with 667,112 for the same period in 2014.

The minister said the increase was due to Government Action Plan and efforts in preparing attractive investment environments in Bahrain to expand current business and attract more capital investments which led to the increase of the demand on local and expatriate workers.