Labour and Social Development Minister, Jameel bin Mohammed Ali Humaidan, said the total number of workers in the Kingdom of Bahrain in the third quarter of last year grew by 6%.

The minister said the number of national workers registered with the General Organisation of Social Insurance (GOSI) increased to more than 158,182 by the end of the third quarter (Q3) last year (2015). The total number of expatriate workers was approximately 559 thousand.

This came in the report presented by the minister and approved by the Cabinet in its weekly meeting on Monday. The report included monitoring, control of variables in the key indices for the labour market.

Humaidan said the total number of workers in the Kingdom of Bahrain was 717,218 by the end of the third quarter recording an increase by six percent compared with 667,845 for the same period in 2014.

He said the increase was due to satisfaction of the requirements for implementation of the Government Action Plan and the government’s efforts in paving attractive investment environment in the Kingdom to expand the current business and attract new overseas investments resulting in the increase on the demand for local and expat workers.