Employment opportunities rise in Bahrain

Manama : A year-on-year increase was recorded in the employment opportunities in Bahrain during July, according to the latest employment index.

Bahrain posted an increase for a consecutive time in the monthly Monster Employment Index (MEI) as online employment listings rose by 11pc in July.

Job opportunities listed in Bahrain, Kuwait and Oman recorded a growth during the month as compared to the same period last year, the employment index revealed.

While Kuwait and Oman both posted a 10pc increase, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar and Egypt posted 15, 22, 25 and 34pc decline respectively.

In June, Bahrain had recorded an even greater increase; the year-on-year increase was 23pc.

Four of the twelve industry sectors monitored regionally by the index noted an increase in online hiring.

“Consumer goods/ FMCG, food and packaged food, home appliance, garments/ textiles/ leather, gems and jewellery (up 26pc) led all the monitored industry sectors in terms of long-term growth in July 2016. But the pace of growth in the sector is wilting. The six-month growth rate eased from 27pc in June to three per cent in July,” the report said. Production/ manufacturing, automotive and ancillary (up 10pc) was next in the rung.

“Online hiring in this sector has been going strong this year. Month-on-month, there has been one per cent decline in online opportunities. IT and telecom/ISP (up three per cent) and health care (up two per cent) were the only other sectors to exhibit a positive long-term growth,” it stated.

According to the report, engineering, construction and real estate (down 12pc); BFSI (down 49pc); retail/trade and logistics (down 55pc) showed annual declines in July vis-à-vis June 2016.

“Online hiring activity eased the most in the hospitality sector (down 62 pc),” the report added.