The growth of employment in the Kingdom shows an annual increase of 6.3pc as 754,863 workers were registered this year compared to 710,296 workers in the same period last year.

This increase responds to the work programme of the government and its efforts to create a prepared environment in the Kingdom to expand its business. Minister of Labour and Social Development Jameel Humaidan revealed the statistics in the Cabinet meeting on Monday, to monitor changes of the labour market.

The Minister also revealed that the total number of national labour force working in the private sector has reached 103,537 citizens while the total national labour force working in the public sector has reached 160,000 by the end of June 2016. He pointed out that the number of Bahrainis in the private sector will be even higher due to the government’s efforts in integrating nationals.The ministry’s joint efforts with Tamkeen has also helped train Bahraini job seekers.

The increase in the stability and growth of the economy is seen in the increase of foreign workers from 595,151 to 551,859.

The percentage of Bahrainis who earn salaries higher than BD500 employed in the private sector is at 37pc of the total national workforce in the private sector.

The Minister explained that the number of work permits that have been renewed in 2016 has reached 76,297, of which 61,643 are worker permits, 554 investor permits, 129 temporary employment permits and 13,971 foreign workers permits.

The number of new permit renewals showed an increase from 56,440 in the second quarter of 2016 to 76,297 in this quarter.

The LMRA also processed 30,316 for permit termination requests, of which 24,944 were workers permits, 82 for investors, 536 for temporary employment and 4,754 are for foreign workers.

On the same note, Humaidan revealed that the number of foreign workers requesting to transfer to a new employer during this quarter has reached 5,896 , the number of transfer requests after the end of contracts has reached 7.7pc, as for the number of transferred requests with the consent of the former employer is 91.8pc and the number of transfer requests denied by the employer is 0.4pc.

The accommodation and food sectors have the highest number of transfer requests of this quarter, followed by transport and storage, then insurance and money activities.