Bermuda is still heavily reliant on foreign workers according to the latest Government Employment Briefs report.

Non-Bermudians account for 31 per cent of the labour market, most of whom work in the higher-income bracket.

Over a four-year period the percentage of Bermudian workers has steadily declined from 73 percent (27,722) in 2002 to 69 percent (27,356) in 2006.

In that same time the number of spouses of Bermudians has remained at five percent (from 1,799 to 1,992) and the figure for permanent residents has stayed at one percent (from 286 to 525) since 2004.

But the total of other non-Bermudians has peaked at 25 percent (9,813).

Bermudians are also lagging behind in terms of median gross annual income, although they saw a substantial increase from $43,559 in 2005 to $47,266 in 2006.

While Bermudians still make up the biggest group of workers who qualify for an annual bonus (7,128), mortgage subsidy (1,923) and stock options (2,037), 'other non-Bermudians' also represent a high proportion of those eligible for an annual bonus (2,998), housing allowance (1,439) and stock options (916). Spouses of Bermudians similarly accounted for a fair slice of annual bonuses (593).

On the whole, one in four jobs in the Bermudian job market was occupied by a contract worker in 2006.

Of the 739 new jobs in Bermuda in 2006, non-Bermudians with no marital ties to a Bermudian accounted for 553 (75 percent) of these new positions.

The statistics also show a high reliance on imported labour in the professional, technical and related occupations group. Occupations such as qualified accountants, registered nurses and secondary education teachers were largely filled by guest workers. Two out of three (617) qualified accountants were other non-Bermudians, as were more than half of the 454 registered nurses.

Contract workers were similarly employed to meet sizeable shortages in demand for Bermudian computer programmer/analysts (104), lawyers (117), physicians (71) actuaries (105), insurance underwriters (206) and accountants (273).

But on the flip-side employment opportunities exist for Bermudian teachers in the local secondary schools in English, mathematics, social studies, design and technology, foreign language and learning support, according to statistics revealed by the Department of Education.

In addition they is plenty of employment promise for qualified Bermudians within the administrative and managerial occupations sector.

But at the top of the reinsurance and insurance fields, the incidence of non-Bermudians is still very high, with 73 percent occupying the management and directorship positions. That figure is slighly lower in the administrative and managerial categories, with non-Bermudians taking up 58 percent and 67 percent of the managers/directors and submanagers of finance positions.

However Bermudians take up the lion's share of the clerical positions, with only 35 percent of guest workers filling legal secretarial placings and the nationals seeing a rise in the number of posts in the sales occupations such as brokers (68), investment officers (52) and trust officers (22).

The service sector continued to rely on guest workers filling the positions, with sous chef/second chef (90 percent), waiter/chef de rang (86 percent), chef de Partie/cook (83 percent), executive chef/head cook (74 percent) and general waiter (71 percent) topping the list.

Non-Bermudians also dominated the nursemaid/nanny, beautician and dish and pot washers.

Finally 70 percent of all workers in agriculture and husbandry were non-Bermudians, filling posts such as farm workers, gardeners and landscape gardeners.

2006 saw an increase of 559 vacancies over the 1,338 in 2005. The industries with the highest number of vacant positions included public administration (390), financial intermediation (232), hotels (204) and international business activity (176).

Public administration experienced the most significant change, as the share of vacancies increased by 11 percentage points, while the hotel industry rose to 165 vacant positions.

In terms of the share of youth employment (24 years old and above), the labour force participation rate stood at 43 percent for 2006, occupying seven percent of all positions with 2,780 jobs.

Interestingly female participation was dominant, occupying 1,443 posts, 106 more positions than their male counterparts.

The majority of males were employed in the production, transport and related occupation sector with 648 jobs, while the large share of women took up clerical jobs (704). Chasiers (120), junior clerks (159), labourers (168) and longshoremen (46) also proved to be popular professions.

In the young working population, the median income was high for those working in the professional, technical and related roles, reaching $46,684, with the median for the sales industry of $25,864 significantly lower than most.