Jamaica recorded the second highest level of employment ever in April, data from the Statistical Institute of Jamaica reveals, with 1,269,300 workers, just 3,400 short of the 1,272,700 individuals employed in January 2020, the previous high, resulting in an unemployment rate of 6 percent compared to 7.3 percent in the 2020 period.
The April outturn is the lowest level of unemployment on record, beating the 6.2 percent in January this year.
The labour force was 1.373 million in January 2020, some 20,000 more than 1.35 million employed in April this year, but the number of persons classified as unemployed is 81,000 compared with 100,200 in January 2020. There are 746,000 persons outside the labour force, including retirees and persons in their mid teen years, but the job seeking rate is 3.8 percent or around 51,000 persons and is down from 4.9 percent at the beginning of 2020. The 2020 employment was the last report before the country saw its borders closed in March to 12.6 percent in July as 150,000 persons lost their jobs.
The fall in the unemployment rate occurred when the stopover tourist arrivals were only 72 percent of what it was in 2019. The latest data out of the sector indicating that it is back to 2019 levels would lead to more persons being employed in the industry for the June quarter as such, the numbers for July are likely to show that the unemployment rate will likely decline further, with the country recording record employment.
Unemployment drops below 100K
The number of unemployed persons in October 2019 fell under 100,000 to 96,700, with a fall of 19,000 persons after 29,200 persons were employed over October 2018 and moving the number of employed to 1.248 million persons.
The development in Jamaica’s labour market saw the country’s unemployment rate hitting the lowest level in record history at 7.2 percent down from 8.7 percent for October 2018 and 7.8 percent in July last year.
The occupation group ‘Clerks’ had the most significant increase in employment of 17,700 persons for the twelve months to October. The second-highest increase was for the occupation group ‘Service Workers and Shop and Market Sales Workers’, which increased by 13,900.
The largest change in employment by industry group was in ‘Public Administration and Defence; Compulsory Social Security’ which increased by 10,800 persons, moving from 60,300 in October 2018 to 71,100 in October 2019. Employment in Agriculture, Hunting, Forestry & Fishing declined by 6,500 workers.
Employment jumps 10,700 for 2018
Employment in Jamaica jumped by 10,700 persons since the start of 2018, to 1,217,300 persons in April, and 14,700 more than the 1,202,600 recorded in April last year.
A total of 1,206,600 persons, were employed, in January 2018 this year data out of the Statistical Institute of Jamaica (Statin)shows.
The effect of the increase in the number of persons employed, is that the unemployment rate fell to 9.7 percent In April, compared to 12.2 percent in April 2017, but inched up slightly from the 9.6 percent recorded in January, this year.
“Among major occupation groups, the largest increase in the Employed Labour Force between April 2017 and April 2018 occurred in ‘Elementary Occupations’. This occupation group includes, among other jobs, car washers, street vendors and housekeepers in hotels. There were 174,900 persons employed in this occupation group in April 2018, an increase of 13,200 or 8.2 percent when compared with April 2017,” the Statin report showed.
