Unemployment in Bahrain

Bahrain's minister of social affairs and labor Abdul Nabi al-Shu'llah said on Wednesday that the rate of unemployment in Bahrain reached 5% of the total labor force in the country whose population tolled 651,000, with more than one third of them are foreigners.

Al-Shu'llah explained that some 15800 Bahraini citizens were registered as seeking work opportunities in December 2001, which is the highest unemployment rate in the country.

Al-Shu'llah said that 181230 foreigners, most of them unskilled workers from the Indian continent and the Philippines constitute 60% of the total labor force estimated at 308341.

The Bahraini minister indicated that the ministry will not extend the " grace period" which expires on January 31st for 50,000 foreign workers who illegally work in the country in order to correct their conditions or leave the country.

Simultaneously, he said that Bahrain still needs foreign workers to strengthen the national economy, Bahrain, however, had banned foreigners from occupying certain works in order to ensure more job opportunities for the Bahraini citizens.