Jamaica’s unemployment rate dropped to a record low of 4.2 percent in October last year and is down compared with the unemployment rate at 4.5 percent in both April and July 2023, data from the Statistical Institute of Jamaica show.
The number of employed persons in October 2023, rose to 1,320,400, marginally up from 1.3151 million persons in July last year and 1.3126 million in April. The data shows that in October 2023, there were 57,300 unemployed persons in the labour force.
Jamaica’s Unemployment dives to 4.2%
January 30, 2024 by
Jamaica’s unemployment drops to record low
August 15, 2023 by
Jamaica’s unemployment rate dropped to the lowest level on record in April 2023, with only 4.5 percent of persons said to be out of work, according to data released today by the Statistical Institute of Jamaica (Statin) and is 1.5 percentage points lower than the 6 percent in April 2022.
There were 1,373,800 persons in the Labour Force, 23,500 or 1.7 percent more than in April 2022, but 43,300 persons gained employment, according to the official government body that collects the data.
The number of persons Outside the Labour Force in April this year was 725,700, a decrease of 20,700 or 2.8 percent compared to 746,400 in April 2022.
Jamaica on cusp of record employment
July 17, 2022 by
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.
