Finance sector job rate grows
by mahmood on 13/04/06 at 9:32 am · email · print
Employment in Bahrain’s financial services industry grew by nine per cent last year, according to an annual survey conducted by the Bahrain Monetary Agency (BMA).
A total of 8,219 people were employed by the country’s financial services institutions by the end of December, compared with 7,542 at the end of 2004.
Bahrainis represented 72.4pc of total employment in the financial services industry during last year.
The annual survey covers Bahrain’s banks, insurance firms and other financial services institutions. Employment figures for 2004 have also been revised to include these institutions.
The Bahraini workforce, including men and women, totalled 5,951 last year, an increase of 6.6pc over the revised 2004 figure of 5,581, according to the survey conducted by the BMA’s Financial Stability Directorate.
“A key highlight of the survey is the increase of 19.7pc in the employment of Bahraini women who work in commercial banks, who constituted more than one-quarter of the total workforce of commercial banks”, said director of the Financial Stability Directorate Shaikh Salman bin Isa Al Khalifa.
The investment banks also posted a strong increase of 12.6pc in employment, with a majority of new jobs going to Bahrainis.
The industry, which at the end of 2005, comprised 365 institutions – in addition to the BMA, Bahrain Stock Exchange and Bahrain Institute of Banking and Finance – is one of the largest contributors to Bahrain’s gross domestic product.
The BMA survey found that employment in Bahrain’s banking sector – which comprises Full Commercial Banks (FCBs), Offshore Banking Units (OBUs), Investment Banks (IBs), Representative Offices, the Housing Bank and the Bahrain Development Bank – grew by 10.6pc to 6,172 people last year, compared with 5,578 in 2004.
The Bahraini workforce in the banking sector grew by 7.6pc to 4,658, which represented 75.5pc of the total workforce in this sector.
Of the Bahraini personnel, nearly one third (1,620) were females, while 3,038 were males.
FCBs remained the largest employer in the banking sector last year with 2,790 personnel, of whom 2,429 (87.1pc) were Bahrainis.
OBUs employed a total of 1,777 people, of whom 1,100 (61.9pc) were Bahrainis, while IBs employed 1,361 people – of whom 945 (69.4pc) were Bahrainis.
Employment in the non-banking financial sector (comprising insurance firms, money brokers, money changers, investment advisory, capital market broking companies and the BSE) increased by 8pc to 1,744 people in 2005, from 1,615 in 2004. The Bahraini workforce in the insurance sector grew by 10.7pc to 650, from 587 in 2004. Of the Bahraini personnel, 36.2pc (235) were women, while 415 were males.
GDN :: 13 Apr ’06
