Foreign worker numbers climb 30% in four years
The number of foreign workers grew significantly in the four years to 2025, just-released government figures show.
The Bermuda Job Market Employment Briefs 2026, made publicly available last week, showed a more than 30 per cent increase in total filled jobs by “other non-Bermudians” in the period 2021 to 2025.
“Other non-Bermudians” refers specifically to all non-Bermudian job holders operating under standard work permits, excluding Bermudian spouses and permanent resident certificate holders.
The number climbed from 6,952 in 2021 to 9,099 by last year, a near 31 per cent increase.
Guest workers have led the post-pandemic recovery, with the number of other non-Bermudian jobs growing by 816 jobs in 2023, 550 jobs in 2024, and 422 jobs in 2025.
The report also highlighted a significant disparity in pay. Non-Bermudian groups commanded significant income premiums when annual salaries were compared with the overall island-wide median, while Bermudian earnings fell below the overall median, and have done so for at least as far back as 2013.
The median is the middle value in a data set arranged in order from smallest to largest.
International business has expanded continuously from 3,768 jobs in 2013 to 5,070 jobs in 2025 — a net growth of nearly 35 per cent. The sector proved completely resilient to the pandemic, adding 220 jobs in 2020 and 172 in 2021.
The 2025 median gross annual income was $69,915 for Bermudians; $90,938 for PRC holders; $85,870 for spouses of Bermudians and $84,579 for other non-Bermudians.
There is an occupational skewing of work permit holders across two distinct economic tiers.
First, high-earning corporate roles, such as senior executives, actuaries, underwriters, and senior accountants in international business. And, second, lower-wage hospitality and service roles, such as cooks, waiters, housekeepers, and landscape gardeners.
Because high-earning corporate expatriates make up a substantial share of non-Bermudian permit holders, their median pay ($84,579 in 2025) remains substantially higher than the island-wide average.
Across the major divisions of economic activity, workers in the international business sector earned a median income of $177,475, more than twice the overall median income of $72,858.
Bermuda reported four consecutive years of employment growth, with total filled jobs reaching 33,820 in 2025.
Meanwhile, seniors have increased their share of total Bermuda employment, filling 6.5 per cent of Bermuda jobs in 2013, but filling up to 9.4 per cent by 2025, nearly one in ten jobs, the figures show.
Even with a slight drop during the pandemic, the share of total jobs held by those 65 and older increased from 7.6 per cent to 8 per cent through to 2021.
All told, Bermuda has suffered a post-Covid jobs hangover, with the Employment Briefs 2026 showing employment has never fully returned to the pre-Covid 2019 level.
Total filled jobs were 34,277 in 2013; 34,378 in 2019; and, 33,820 in 2025.
The 2026 edition of The Bermuda Job Market Employment Briefs is based on data collected from the 2025 Employment Survey during the reference week August 31 to September 6, 2025. The survey is a census of all businesses on the island and provides a count of all filled jobs in the Bermuda job market.
The Employment Briefs are used to highlight the main findings of the survey and the collected information is the primary source used for analysing employment trends.
• For more on the 2026 edition of The Bermuda Job Market Employment Briefs, see Related Media
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