Is employment really up?

The employment numbers rose 16,700 (1.5 percent) to reach 1,124,600 persons, in June this year compared to the same time in 2013, according to data just released by Statistical Institute of Jamaica (Statin), but is down from March this year, with the data showing 1,133,000 persons employed at that time, and the unemployment rate at 13.6 percent.
“The Employed Labour Force this year June, is more than the 1,107,900 recorded in June 2013”, Statin said.
The latest data brought the Employment Rate for June 2014, to 86.2 percent of the work force, a 1.6 percentage point increase, compared with 84.6 percent in June 2013. The Employment Rate increased for males, by 1.8 percentage points, moving from 88.3 percent to 90.1 percent, and for females it increased by 1.5 percentage points, from 80.1 percent to 81.6 percent.
The unemployment rate stood at 13.8 percent at mid 2014 compared to 15.4 percent at the same time in 2013. Overall the number of unemployed persons decreased by 22,200 (11.0 percent) moving from 201,600 persons in July 2013 to 179,400 persons in July 2014, the report stated. But the number of persons who were classified as Outside the Labour Force in June 2014 was 778,300, an increase of 10,400.
There are seasonality in the data for employments making it a bit difficult to compared successive quarter with each other. It is expected that the Christmas quarter with increase business activity and the first quarter of the year with increased tourists arrivals and sugar production tends to have more persons employed than for the other periods of the year.
Who got jobs?| “There were significant increases in employment in the Occupation group ‘Professionals, Senior Officials and Technicians’ which increased by 14,000 persons (5.9 percent), moving from 239,400 in July 2013 to 253,400 in July 2014. Increases in employment were also observed in the group, ‘Elementary Occupations’, which increased from 142,100 persons in July 2013 to 147,900 persons (4.1 percent) in July 2014. The group ‘Craft and Related Trades Workers’ had the largest decline for the period, moving from 141,800 in July 2013 to 136,300 in July 2014 resulting in a decline of 5,500 (3.9 percent) persons,” Statin stated.
Statin went on to say that “the largest increase in the number of employed persons, were for persons in the group ‘Hotels & Restaurants Services’ that increased by 7,800 (10.4 percent) persons while ‘Education’ increased by 5,000 (7.4 percent) persons. The group ‘Real Estate, Renting &
Business Activities’ declined from 69,900 in July 2013 to 64,400 in July 2014 resulting in a decline of 5,500 (7.9 percent) persons.