More Jamaicans were employed in March this year than for the same period in 2012 as 8,700 persons found employment bringing the number of employed persons to 1,107,400 as against 1,098,700 recorded in March 2012 and 1,093,200 in December last year. For males, it increased by 6,300 (1.0 percent) to 630,300 and for females by 2,400 (0.5 percent) to 477,100 for the period. Unfortunately, the number of increased employed could not help in the reduction of the unemployed as those rose 30,200 raising the unemployed rate to 16.3 percent, the worse rate since 1997 when the rate was 16.5 percent.
The Employment Rate for March 2013 was 83.7 percent, which was a 1.9 percentage point decline from the 85.6 percent in March 2012. The Employment Rate declined for both males and females over the period. For males, it declined by 1.1 percentage points, moving from 89.1 percent to 88.0 percent and for females it declined by 2.7 percentage points, moving from 81.4 percent to 78.7 percent over the same period.
The Occupation group ‘Clerks’ had the largest increase (6.0 percent) in the number of persons employed moving from 95,200 in March 2012 to 100,900 in March 2013. The group ‘Plant and Machine Operators’ and ‘Assemblers’ had the largest decline (4,300 persons) moving from 62,000 to 57,700 during the same period.
The industry group ‘Wholesale & Retail, Repair of Motor Vehicle & Equipment’ increased by 17,000 (7.8 percent) moving from 217,100 in March 2012 to 234,100 in March 2013. During the same period employment in ‘Manufacturing’ declined by 7,200 persons (9.2 percent).
Labour force | In March 2013, the number of persons in the Labour Force was 1,322,500, which was 38,900 (3.0 percent) higher than the 1,283,600 recorded in March 2012. The male labour force increased by 15,600 (2.2 percent), from 700,500 in March 2012 to 716,100 in March 2013, and the female labour force increased by 23,300 (4.0 percent) moving from 583,100 to 606,400 in the same period.
The number of persons who were classified as ‘Outside the Labour Force’ in March 2013 declined by 33,300 a 4.2 percent decrease to reach 753,700, when compared to 787,000 in March 2012. The number of males ‘Outside the Labour Force’ declined by 12,900 (4.3 percent) from 315,600 and the females by 20,400 (4.5 percent) from 471,400 over the period.
Unemployed | The number of Unemployed persons in March 2013 was 215,100, an increase of 30,200 (16.3 percent) when compared with 184,900 in March 2012. The number of unemployed males increased by 9,500 (12.4 percent) and the number of females by 20,700 (19.1 percent) for the same period.
The Unemployment Rate for March 2013 was 16.3 percent compared to 14.4 percent in March 2012. For the same period, the unemployment rate for males was 12.0 percent compared to 21.3 percent for females.
Youth unemployment a big problem | Unemployment rates among youths aged 14-24 years was 38.5 percent for March 2013. This was an increase of 4.1 percentage points when compared with 34.4 percent in March 2012. The male unemployment rate for youths was 30.1 percent compared to 27 percent for females.
The March 2013 Labour Force Survey was conducted by the Statistical Institute of Jamaica (STATIN). The reference week for this survey was March 25-31, 2013. The 2011 Population Census distribution was used to derive all the estimates for the survey.
Related posts | Employment rate stabilised in 2012
