Jamaica’s unemployment rate has dropped from 10.7 percent in October last year to 8.9 percent in January this year, which is 1.5 percentage points higher than the rate in January 2020, data from the Statistical Institute of Jamaica shows.
According to the body charged with gather and reporting on Jamaica’s economic data, there were 1,194,800 employed persons at the time of the survey, 74,300 or 5.9 percent fewer persons compared to January 2020. “The largest decline in employment by occupation was among ‘Service Workers and Shop and Market Sales Workers’, while the industry with the largest decline in employment was ‘Accommodation and Food Service Activities,” Statin said.