Above: Resorts World Bimini

The Resorts World Bimini project plans to hire an additional 300 people by mid-December, according to Bahamas Labour Minister D Shane Gibson.

The Minister, whose portfolio also includes National Insurance and Public Service, said the 300 additional jobs would increase its staff on Bimini to more than 800 people.

Construction phase on the property’s new hotel project will also mean some 552 temporary jobs, he said.

“This is progress, Mr Speaker,” he recently said in Parliament.

It’s not clear how many of those jobs will go to Biminites and Bahamians; Gibson said Resorts World Bimini had agreed to work in consultation with the Ministry of Labour and National Insurance, the Department of Labour and the Employment Exchange to “ensure that Bahamians are given first preference in all jobs at Resorts World Bimini.”

He did say that the government had taken a policy decision that labour certificates from the Department of Labour and work permits from the Department of Immigration would “only be granted in cases where the government is satisfied that there is no Bahamian and, I repeat, there is no Bahamian available to fill the vacancy.”

Accordingly, Gibson said the government would work on an upgrade at the Department of Labour in Bailey Town, Bimini.

That will include a relocation of the offices to new premises and an increase in manpower to the department, he said.

The projection is slightly lower than an initial estimate of 350 new jobs made by the government earlier this year.

Bimini has a population of around 1,600.