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New Initiative To Put 185,000 Bahrainis To Work

Bahrain aims to place 185,000 national in employment in a new five year plan to reduce expat labor.

Bahrain has launched a new initiative aimed at reducing unemployment levels by replacing high numbers of expats with nationals.
 
The new program aims to place 35,000 well educated Bahrainis with high skill levels in positions currently held by qualified expatriates and to train 150,000 nationals with high school degrees to take up entry level positions in the private sector.

The official unemployment rate in Bahrain stands at 3.5%, although the actual figure is believed to be much higher.

Tariq A. Haq, Research Economist at the International Labour Organization’s Employment Analysis and Research Unit, told The Media Line that expats played a huge part in Bahrain’s economy.

“The employment creation that has generated [Bahrain’s economic] growth was predominately caused by the employment of foreign workers, whether it be lower level skills, working in the construction industry or the higher level skills, working in management in the financial services sector,” Haq said.

A report published Monday by the Bahraini Labor Ministry claimed that for the first time in the country’s history, expats make up over 50% of the population.      

“The official rates that you see are for nationals, [unemployment] is especially high among the youth,” Haq said. “This is why these countries are adopting all kinds of strategies geared to employing more nationals in places where foreign workers are currently occupying positions.”

Bahrain is not the only place in the Gulf facing such problems. The expat employment rate is be as high as 80% in certain sectors of Dubai’s economy, and government efforts to nationalize the labor force have seen little success.
    
Governments face a conundrum in which the majority of their nationals are employed in the public sector, where there is little potential for long term growth in employment possibilities.

“There are mixed results where different countries have tried different ways to nationalize their labor force,” Haq said. “In Saudi Arabia for example, some professions can only have Saudi workers in that field. In Bahrain they have had some successful policies but across the board it’s difficult to say.”

“With a very young population and high population growth rate, a lot of young people are entering the labor market [requiring] strategies to absorb them.”