Bahrain Employment and Career News
Poor salaries deter nationals from working in private firms
Several GCC nationals are preferring government jobs over private sector jobs due to poor salaries offered by the later, reveals a new report.
Bahrain labour market has now been split 50-50 between Bahrainis and expats, the TalentRepublic.net says in its latest report.
However, only 51 percent of Bahrain workforce can be considered “local”, says the report.
A total of up to 58 percent of GCC workforce constitute expats, while majority of nationals are concentrated in the public sector. The report warns that such a trend could have damaging effects in the long-term economic sustainability and urged private companies to find work for GCC nationals in the job market.
The Government could implement policies and create incentives that encourage private businesses to aggressively hire locals, the report suggests.
On the contrary, nationals also need to be encouraged to pursue various career prospects in the private sector. The report emphasizes the need to equip the local workforce to fill jobs currently occupied by foreigners.
Competent and qualified nationals find the work environment in the private sector unattractive, the report points out.
This is due to several factors such as low pay-scale, which prompts them to seek better opportunities in public sector. Meanwhile, private firms are embracing the status quo by hiring more expats than locals, mainly due to lack of awareness about improvements in competency of local workforce, the report states.
The pattern is common in the GCC region, with Saudi Arabia and Oman being the only exceptions with considerably lower ratios of expats in the workplace.
Posted on 26/11/2009
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